INEBALXPRXlsfGS 



MICHIGAN. W 

' By $TILE£Ke|WeDYM.Q 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.* 
4— i 




#|l«j!. ...& |op g ri S M |!o , 

# 

i UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 




AlpWnad 

lYfagnelitTOprings 






\-^ 



^Whitehall 



"WPTumn Q \^ v >/ 



]VIi(Eand c \\^ r -j m 



GrandHaveri 




^InskeijoTL 
^^feo Fndf portw Su 

-^/?r.lVv o^X. Owbssoj 

GranaiedgKM: 
XANSDfW 



i^BAY CITY 
SAGINAW (Trc^H^EAST SAGINAW 

StLouis, 

Magnetic Spring 






Part Huron, 



FlinP 



Holly 



E aRhsi^apids, 

*^ < S 4) -Leslie 

M. Springs 

Marshall , TArKS()K 





nil S 1 -^ 


>^jiliac 






.jJH 


DETROIT? 


vtlW-^ 



vv 



-*%v 



7 ORT WAYNE 



1NDIANAP0.LP 



MBNCIE 



NEW^O CASTLE 



4 



Map Showing the Location of the Various Magnetic 

and Mineral Springs of Michigan, and the 

Railroads Leading to Them. 



.. E*ratuw.— During last Winter, 1S71-72, a Rail mute was opened from Toledo to Holly, connecting with 
the i lint and Pere Marquette R. R.. making a short line between Toledo and East Sagii aw. This road should 
also appear on the Map extended from Fast Saginaw to Heed city, a b-»wn near lake Michigan, about half 
way between Grand Rapids and Grand Traverse. Midland Spring is on this road instead of being as repre- 



jn/.c L 



THE 



Magnetic and Mineral Springs 



OF 



MICHIGAN, 



TO WHICH IS 




PREFIXED AN ESSAY 



ON THE 



CLIMATE OF MICHIGAN, 



BY 



STILES KENNEDY, M. D. 



WILMINGTON, DEL. : 

JAMES & WEBB, PUBLISHERS AND PRINTERS. 
1872. 






^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Stiles Kennedy, M. D„ in th< 
office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



LITHOGRAPHS, 



PAGE. 



Map of Rail Routes, (Frontispiece) 

Isothermal Map, - - - - - - 21 

Great Bath House, - - - - - 51 

New Alpena Hotel, - - - - - 55 

Vaughan House, Eaton Rapids, ■- 61 

Spring Lake, ------- 65 



CONTENTS. 



" Forests, 
a a 

it a 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

Physical Conformation of Michigan, - 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Climate of Michigan, - - - - - - -11 

Influence of the Lakes, - . - - - _ 13 

- • - - - - 14 

Winds, - - - - - - 18 

Altitude, - - - - - - 19 

The sum of these influences. [Illustrated with Isothermal Map, ] - 20 

CHAPTER III. 

Malaria in Michigan, ------ 23 

Influence of Forest Fires, - - - - - - 24 

CHATTER IV. 

Magnetic and Mineral Wells, - - - - - 27 

Are they Magnetic ? - - - - - - .29 

Scientific Experiments, ------ 30 

Runners for them, - - - - - - -36 

Quacks in Michigan, - - - - - - 37 



CHAPTER V. 
Water as a Medicine, - 



4i 



CHAPTER VI. 

Proper use of Mineral Waters, ----- 45 

CHAPTER VII. 

St. Louis Magnetic Spring — Location, &c, - - - 51 

Chemical Composition, - - 52 

Therapeutic Effects, etc. , - - - - - - 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Alpena Magnetic Well, etc., - - - - -56 

CHAPTER IX. 
Midland Mineral Spring, ------ en 



6 Contents. 

CHAPTER X. 
Eaton Rapids Magnetic Springs, - - - - 61 

CHAPTER XL 
Spring Lake Magnetic Spring, 65 

CHAPTER XII. 

Lansing Magnetic Well, - - - - - -67 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Fruit Port Magnetic and Sulphur Spring, - - - - 71 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Butterworth's Magnetic Spring, - - - - - 73 

CHAPTER XV. 
Owosso Chalybeate Spring. ------- 75 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Hubbardston Magnetic Spring, - - - - - 77 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Grand Ledge Magnetic Spring, - - - - - 79 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Leslie Magnetic Spring, - - - - - - 81 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Flint's Magnetic Spring, ------ 83 

CHAPTER XX. 

Therapeutic Effect of Mineral Spring Waters, , - - 85 

In Rheumatism, ------- 86 

In Dyspepsia, ------ t _ g 2 

In Paralysis and other Nervous Diseases, - - - 100 

In diseases of the Kidneys, Bladder and Urine, - 109 

CHAPTER XXL 
Michigan as a Summer Resort for Consumptives, - • - 117 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Places of Interest, - - - 121 

Resources of the State, - - - - - 124 

Wild Sports, - - 128 



PREFACE. 



The Medical profession of this "country has been thor- 
oughly disgusted and prejudiced against the whole class of 
Mineral Springs by the incessant proclaimings of interested 
parties of the discovery of new Siloams, Bethesdas, Abanas 
and Pharpars. Yet as there has been for two or three years, 
no inconsiderable excitement over the discovery of Mineral 
and Magnetic wells in Michigan of surpassing curative pro- 
perties, the subject seemed to be of sufficient importance to 
warrant an investigation. Before these waters were analyzed 
the most wonderful statements were circulated regarding 
cures of the lame and the afflicted by their use alone. Chem- 
ists finally brought out their analysis, and proved that there 
was indeed at these Springs much to hope for in the allevia- 
tion of the maladies of mankind. 

I chose to make a thorough investigation of the medical 
virtues of the Mineral and Magnetic Springs of Michigan, and 
of the suitableness of that State in other respects as a resort 
for invalids, and for that purpose spent last Summer (1871) 
in Michigan. 

This object was facilitated by accepting the position of 
Resident Physician to the St. Louis Springs. Here I met 
some twelve hundred persons from all parts of the United 
States with every imaginable variety of chronic disease. 



8 Preface. 

This volume may, therefore, be looked upon as a Medical 
Report of my observations on the effects of the waters and 
climate of Michigan in disease. 

For reasons set forth in the Chapter on the " Therapeu- 
tic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters," and from the unquali- 
fied approval by the profession of a former attempt, I have in 
this work adopted the clinical plan of demonstrating my own 
views of the Therapeutics and Practice regarding these 
waters, as being most satisfactory to all concerned. 

I am indebted to the publishers for much liberality in the 
execution of their work, and a great deal of patience in con- 
ducting it through the press, during my absence from home. 

STILES KENNEDY, M. D. 
Newark, Del., April 29, 1872. 



CHAPTER I. 



PHYSICAL CONFORMATION OF MICHIGAN. 

Michigan consists of two peninsulas. The upper or 
northern one, is formed by Lake Superior on the North, and 
Lake Michigan on the South ; the two Lakes joining at Macki- 
nac Straits. 

The lower or southern peninsula, or Michigan proper, is 
bounded on the East by Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, and Lake 
Huron, joining at Mackinac Straits Lake Michigan, which forms 
the western boundary. In the following pages the name Michi- 
gan will refer only to the lower peninsula unless otherwise 
mentioned. 

Michigan is nestled in these great Lakes between the 
parallels of 42 and 46 , and between the meredians of 86° 
and 88°, containing an area of 45,000 square miles. The sur- 
face is moderately undulating from the shores of the Lakes 
toward the interior ridge, where it is some three hundred feet 
above the level of the Lakes, and about one thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. When we remember that the 
waters of these Lakes are from five hundred to one thousand 
feet deep, Michigan presents the appearance of a vast sugar 
loaf capsized and a little more than half submerged in a great 
fresh water ocean, which has washed more or less irregular in- 
dentations on its sides. 

The soil is a sandy loam but far more fertile than most 
lands of that character, Michigan being one of the best wheat 
growing States of the Union. The poorer lands of the State 
are on the western and northern boundary, being drift sands 
from Lake Michigan ; western winds prevailing most of the 
year. But even in that portion of the State there is much 
fine land. 

Scattered over the State are several hundred small Lakes 

B 



io Physical Conformation of Michigan. 

or Lakelets, varying in size from a few hundred yards to several 
miles in length and breadth. These little Lakes, as a gene- 
ral rule, are to be found at the mouths of short rivers, or near 
the sources of long ones ; certainly around the Eastern shore 
of Lake Michigan and the Northwestern shore of Lake Huron 
this would appear to be the case. 

Michigan is covered with vast forests. In the central and 
upper portions of the State, the river, courses are lined for 
miles on either side with the Pine, which, after felling and saw- 
ing, constitutes the ''white pine" lumber of commerce. There 
are also large forests of the hard woods, such as oak, beech, 
maple and black walnut. 

These points in the physical geography of the State will 
be referred to more fully in the chapters on " Climate," and 
" Resources."' 



CHAPTER II. 



THE CLIMATE OF MICHIGAN. 

The sun being the source of nearly all the heat of the 
external portions of the Globe, it necessarily follows that the 
position of any given portion of the earth in relation to the 
sun, is the great central determining circumstance or cause 
of its climate. 

If the earth were a level surface of uniform character, the 
effect of solar heat would be exactly the same at all points of 
any one parallel of latitude. The effect would be more intense 
wherever the sun was vertical, and temperature would de- 
crease in other portions of the globe in exact proportion to 
the obliquity of the 9olar rays falling upon such places. 
There would be no difficulty in calculating with exactness 
the temperature of any spot on earth. 

The surface of the earth not being of uniform character 
and level, the solar agency is modified by every departure 
from the standard assumed. 

Every considerable elevation of the surface, the proximity 
of large bodies of water, of immense tracts of forests, in fact 
the whole Physical Geography of a country has a direct and 
important bearing upon the climate of that country. 

The study of the action and re-action of the beautiful and 
diversified forms of nature presented in Michigan upon the 
climate of the State is full of interest. Indeed, some of the 
climatic variations induced in this region by powerful natural 
causes can be found no where else on this Continent, and they 
must be studied and appreciated there, if at all. 

SEC. 2. INFLUENCE OF THE LAKES. 

The lakes surrounding Michigan have, combined, a 
a superficial area of over seventy thousand square miles, or 



12 The Climate of Michigan. 

surface as large as that of all New England, New York, and 
Pennsylvania ; with an average depth of seven hundred and 
fifty feet. 

Now it is well known that water is heated by the sun much 
less readily than land, and that it is much slower in giving up 
its heat, when once warmed. Most of us see this illustrated 
every year at the approach of the warm season. The earth 
soon becomes warm to the barefooted boys, they very natu- 
rally think the water is of the same temperature, and they 
post off to "take a swim." My experience is that the same 
set of boys do not "try the water" but once, future experi- 
ments in that line are made by another set. In the fall, how- 
ever, when the cool nights have made the boys pull on their 
boots, if they should go to their swimming places they would 
find the water quite comfortable. In the first case the ground 
is raised twenty or thirty degrees of temperature, while the 
water is scarcely affected ; in the second case the earth has 
been chilled by a few frosty nights which made little or no im- 
pression on the water. 

The larger the body of water the more distinctly are these 
facts observed. Lake Michigan has a temperature not exceed- 
ing 46 Fah. in summer, and this water gives up its heat so 
slowly that at no time in winter does the temperature sink be- 
low 40 Fah. 

Another important source of thermometric constancy in 
the water of these Lakes is their great depth ; they go down 
into the very bowels of the earth. 

Explorers into the interior of the earth find that as they de- 
scend, after leaving the influence of the surface, the tempera- 
ture increases at the rate of about i° Fah. for every fifty feet of 
descent.* The mean depth of the Lakes-being seven hundred 
and fifty feet, gives at their bottom an increase of 15 F. tem- 
perature. This heat is of course constant, being far below all 
surface influences, and its effect is to increase the tempera- 
ture of the superficial waters at least five to seven degrees. 
{Rees. Encyclopedia^) Here then, by solar agency and the in- 

* This statement is questionable, See *' Nature," Vol. 4. 



Influence of the Lakes. 13 

ternal heat of the globe we have a vast inland ocean of fresh 
water maintained at almost an even temperature the year 
round, in the midst of an immense continental expanse where 
the mercury passes through one hundred and twenty-five de- 
grees in the shade, on the F. scale of the thermometer. In 
mid-winter while the land temperature is 20° Fah. and below, 
these Lakes become great basins of relatively warm water, 
ameliorating the severities of the climate around them ; while 
in summer when the mercury every where is running up to 
90 and beyond, these same Lakes become great reservoirs 
of relatively cold water, refreshing and invigorating all who 
breathe their atmosphere. The winters are thus made warmer 
and the summers are made cooler ; the climate is equalized — 
the extremes of temperature are mitigated. 

So far as the climate of Michigan is concerned, the most 
important body of water is that one bearing the name of the 
State. This arises from no other fact than the one mentioned 
of the prevailing winds being from the west ; so that they must 
be tempered in passing over the Lake's surface, partaking to 
an appreciable extent of its temperature. 

The small Lakes before alluded to, also play an important 
part in modifying climatic excess. 

INFLUENCE OF THE LITTLE LAKES. 

They doubtless extend the area of the influence of the 
great Lakes, by acting as reserves or reinforcements to the 
effects produced on either shore, and carrying the intensity of 
them well into the interior of the State, or to the opposite 
shore. 

This effect is shown by the fact that frost appears much 
later along the borders of these Lakelets than it does a few 
miles from them. 

It is also probable that these small Lakes perform impor- 
tant offices in the drainage of the country in which they are 
situated, acting as large reservoirs for the reception of water 
which would otherwise rest upon great tracts of land and by 
its evaporation unduly increase the humidity of the atmos- 



14 The Climate of Michigan. 

phere, or provoke those excesses of climate it is calculated to 
mitigate, when collected in sufficient quantities. 

Besides, by being- spread out over large tracts of land, it 
not only would seriously interfere with agricultural pursuits, 
but would, by its drying up, increase very much all sorts of ma- 
larial disease. 

Again, during severe and protracted rains, these Provi- 
dential receptacles may preserve the country from inundation, 
and the destruction of property and life, and the production of 
disease which frequently follows great freshets. By holding 
in check enormous quantities of water falling suddenly upon 
the earth, torrential streams are prevented from cutting down 
river banks and filling up their beds and mouths with sand 
and drift. 

On the other hand, during a season of drouth, these little 
Lakes may act as natural irrigators of the domain, the water 
infiltrating the lower portion of earth, perhaps, for a consider- 
able distance beyond the borders of the Lakes, the moisture 
reaching the surface by capillary attraction — and withal, these 
diminutive Lakes furnish the inhabitants of their vicinage a 
cheap and healthful food, and to the seeker of health and 
pleasure a delightful exercise and enjoyment in following the 
devotions of Isaac Walton. 

SEC. 3. INFLUENCE OF FORESTS. 

The relief afforded by forests against climatic severi- 
ties has long been recognized, but the philosophizing of 
Physicists in regard to it is exceedingly contradictory and un- 
satisfactory. 

It is probable that the most important effects of timbered 
tracts in Michigan, are those produced by protecting the 
ground from the hot rays of the sun, thus preventing the ex- 
treme of heat in summer, and by sheltering the ground in win- 
ter and protecting its snow-covering, thus checking extreme 
cold. I do not remember any recent observations establishing 
the difference of temperature in woods and open field, but 
probably the following table taken from Dr. Williams's work 
will answer the purpose. 



Influence of Forests. 



15 



The observations were taken near Cambridge, Mass., at a 
depth of ten inches below the land surface. It would be in- 
teresting to know the temperature of the atmosphere at the 
same times and places, but it has not been given. 



TIME. 


OPEN PASTURE. 


WOODS. 


DIFFERENCE 


May 23 d, 


52 deg. 


46 


deg. 


6 deg. 


„ 28th, 


57 




48 


a 


9 




June 15 th, 


64 < 




51 


a 


13 




" 2 7 th, 


62 




51 


it 


II ' 




July 10th, 


52 




51 


a 


II ' 




" 30th, 


65X ' 




ssA 


a 


10 ' 




Aug. 15 th, 


68 




58 


a 


10 ' 




" 31st, 


59^ ' 




55 


a 


ArA ' 




Sept. 15 th, 


S9A ' 




55 


a 


AA ' 




Oct. 1st, 


$9% ' 




55 


a 


ArA ' 




« 15th, 


49 




49 


a 


' 




Nov. 1st, 


43 




43 


a 


' 




" 1 6th, 


43 




43 


a 


' 





It will be seen that the mean temperature of the woods 
for nearly five months is 8° cooler than the open land. 

It will also be observed how much more rapidly the open 
land gets warm in the spring. The first note taken makes a 
difference of 6°, but in a few days while the woods are getting 
two degrees warmer, the pasture by the direct action of the 
sun's rays has become seven degrees warmer, making a differ- 
ence of 9 . 

In two weeks more, June 15, the woods have only gained 
three degrees of additional heat since last note, while the pas- 
ture has gained seven, making a difference of 13 . Of course 
this difference could not exist long, but we find that during 
the month of June and first part of July the wood's tempera- 
ture is steadily maintained at n° lower temperature than the 
pasture. 

The hotest season of the year now comes and the woods 
are still kept io° cooler than the open field. After this the 
difference gradually lessens so that by the middle of October 
the two thermometers indicate the same temperature. The 
mercury in the woods during four and a half months having 
passed through thirteen degree on the scale, while the one 
in the field passed twenty-five of them. 



1 6 The Climate of Michigan. 

If these observations had been continued during the suc- 
ceeding months from November to April, the following 
changes would probably have been noticed. The mercury in 
the pasture thermometer would have fallen much more rapid- 
ly than the one in the woods, because the field being unpro- 
tected would have been directly susceptible to all the natural 
changes of open land, such as rapid irradiation of heat, espec- 
ially after the wind had dried the soil thoroughly, while the 
soil of the woods would have been protected by abed of leaves 
and other dead matter and by living growths. So that when 
the field would be quite frozen, the woods would remain for a 
while at or about the temperature of 40 . After some con- 
tinuance of cold, at the shallow depth at which the thermom- 
eters were placed they both might stand alike, but at the 
approach of spring, even if a difference had been maintained 
in favor of the wood's temperature up to that time, the field 
would warm sooner than the woods, and raise the mercury 
in its thermometer up to a level with that in the forest. The 
same changes would then take place as set forth in the table. 

Forests also serve to equalize the amount of moisture in 
the atmosphere. When the air is saturated with moisture, the 
excess, or a large portion of it, is absorbed by the leaves, and 
when the atmosphere becomes, from any cause, excessively 
dry, moisture is exhaled from the leaves to aid in making up 
the deficiency. 

When situated to the windward of malarious districts, for- 
ests afford considerable protection against its effects, especial- 
ly if the forests are dry and have a light soil. I have very 
often noticed the beneficial effects of skirts of timber in this 
way in the southern states. The custom in some places of 
planting sun flowers around the houses is therefore founded 
on scientific deductions. It is probable that trees have a spe- 
cific heat of their own, heat evolved in the vital processes of 
vegetation, and if this is the case, it certainly aids in equaliz- 
ing temperature. At any rate the roots of trees sinking deep 
into the earth partake of the temperature of the earth, which 
a few feet below the surface is nearly constant, and this tern- 



Influence of Forest. 17 

perature is conducted by the roots to the surface where it is 
set free in winter, while in summer,the heat of the atmosphere 
and surface soil is conducted below. 

One of the greatest benefits derived from forests is the 
mechanical resistance they offer to the bleak winds. No per- 
sons can appreciate this more than the lumbermen of Michi- 
gan, who are enabled to work in the woods comfortably during 
a winter with severe winds, at a temperature that would be 
unbearable in the open field with a light breeze. 

The soil of woods is generally light and bibulous, filled 
with the roots of trees and undergrowth, and covered with the 
annual deposit of leaves and sticks. Here, then, is a surface 
adapted to the holding, by saturation, an immense quantity 
of water, a reserve for supplying water courses, for preserving 
atmospheric humidity by a slow but constant evaporation, 
and by absorption and exhalation. By the obstacles it offers 
to the rapid passing off of large quantities of rain water it pre- 
vents the sudden inundation of streams. {Man and Nature, 
Marsh?) When the woods are removed, however, the hot rays 
of the sun strike into these accumulated deposits of dead or- 
ganic matter, and malarious gasses are speedily generated. 
This is one reason why in all new countries there is more or 
less malaria. 

The influence of forests on the electrical condition of the 
atmosphere is a very interesting and important subject. It 
has been ascertained by experiments of Du Bois-Raymond 
and others, that the internal parts of plants and the roots (sap 
being necessary) are negatively electrified, and the internal 
parts of leaves, green twigs, flowers, and fruit, are in a perma- 
nent positive electrification* 

We also know that the atmosphere is in a state, generally* 
of positive electricity, for in 2124 observations made by Dr. 
Wisligenus t at regular hours, the atmospheric electricity was 
positive 2046 times and for the negative condition 78 times. 

Of the 78 times, 30 were connected with storms and either 
hail or thunder and lightning, 23 by rains, 20 by high winds 

* Beard and Rockwell's Electricity. t Ferguson's Eleotrioity. 

c 



l8 The Climate of Michigan. 

and gales, 4 by snow, and 1 by fog. For a long time hail 
storms have been supposed by many to be of electrical origin, 
and when we remember that with the removal of the forests 
in some of the European states hail storms the most violent 
and destructive have frequently devastated the most fertile 
and beautiful sections of that country, the conclusion is al- 
most irresistible that the vast tracts of woods with their 
countless millions of electrical conductors play an important 
part in the preservation of the equilibrium of atmospheric 
electricity. That this equilibrium occupies an important part 
in the maintenance of health is shown by the commonly ob- 
served fact that rheumatic, neuralgiac, and many other per- 
sons suffer a great increase of pain on the approach of a storm 
when the electrical conditions of the atmosphere are changed. 

SEC. 4. INFLUENCE OF WINDS. 

The temperature of a country is increased or dimin- 
ished by winds, according as they come from a hot or cold 
expanse. Therefore wind may be regarded as the medium 
of climatic equalization. If it were possible for the atmosphere 
to remain perfectly quiet, no ameliorating influence could be 
brought to bear upon astronomical temperature. Altitude 
wraps the summit of the Rocky Mountains in frost, but it is 
the wind that bears its delicious coolness a hundred miles 
away to the pillow of the invalid in the plains below, and gives 
him refreshing sleep and renewed strength. The Lakes give 
to its atmosphere a lightness and warmth in midwinter, and 
the wind bears it to the peninsula and beautifully softens the 
climate. 

In winter, as a rule, winds blowing over vast tracts of 
land are cold, while those sweeping over large bodies of water 
are warm, and the reverse of this is true in summer. On the 
Atlantic seaboard we dread " Northwesters " during the win- 
ter solstice, yet in England they are warm winds. 

The prevailing winds in Michigan are from the West du- 
ring the Fall, Winter, and Spring months. In winter, the 
West wind is nearly constant, at least the proportion of West 



Influence of Altitude. 19 

to East winds is 8 or 9 to 1. A singular fact in connection 
with this subject is that, while Western Michigan is being 
bathed in the comparatively mild winds from Lake Michigan, 
the Eastern side of the State is receiving a large proportion 
of the winds from Lake Huron, being of course east winds. 
The ratio standing 162 Lake winds to 300 Land winds. As 
the season advances this ratio is gradually increased until at 
the approach of summer the winds off Lake Huron are in 
greater number than those blowing from the West. The cool- 
ing effects of these Summer winds are therefore mostly felt in 
that part of the State in a line west of Saginaw Bay and to 
the North of it. 

Winds by causing rapid evaporation of the moisture of 
soil have a very decided cooling effect, as long at any rate as 
there is any moisture. When the moisture is exhausted the 
effect of the solar heat is much greater. 

Winds evaporate snow rapidly even in the coldest weather. 
We have all remarked the snow leaving open fields much 
sooner than it does the woods, although the latter are of a 
higher temperature ; the soil is thus left bare to the fury of the 
elements. 

A very considerable amount of evaporation takes place 
by the action of the winds on the leaves of trees, and this is 
one reason why forests are cooler than openings. 

SEC. 5. INFLUENCE OF ALTITUDE. 

As altitude increases, temperature becomes lower at 
the rate of i° for every 350 feet of ascension, conse- 
quently, by ascending the Andes one would meet and pass 
through just the same climate, so far as temperature is con- 
cerned, as if he were to travel through thousands of miles of 
latitude. Indeed that factor of climate as a whole, depend- 
ing upon its height above sea level is about the most stable 
and easily calculated, for there are not so many purturbating 
circumstances to modify our balances. 

If one is placed at the foot of a high mountain, no 
matter where, he will find the vegetation of the latitude 



20 The Climate of Michigan. 

in which it is located ; — if in the Tropics, the Palm, the 
Bamboo, and Tree Fern ; as he ascends, these will give way 
to the Oak, Chestnut, and other trees of a latitude much near- 
er the Poles. These will in turn give way as he ascends to 
the Pine and other Conifers. Still higher are the dwarf Birches 
and Alpine shrubs, and then come the Lichens and Mosses of 
Arctic climates. The influence of altitude on the climate of 
the mountain is the cause of these successive changes of vege- 
tation. 

Therefore we know that countries situated far above sea- 
level are cooler than others in the same latitude not so situa- 
ted. 

Lake Michigan being about 600 feet higher than the At- 
lantic, the temperature would be diminished nearly 2°. The 
central ridge of Michigan being some 300 feet higher than the 
Lakes, and consequently 900 feet higher than the sea, would 
have a temperature 2J lower than that of the Atlantic coast. 

Sec. 6. the sum of these influences. 

These are seen in the fact that the mean temperature 
for January on the Wisconsin shore at Milwaukie is 20^°, 
while on the same parallel on the Michigan shore at Grand 
Haven the mean temperature for the same month is 25 . This 
is unquestionably the influence of the Lake only. The differ- 
ence is more striking as we go back from the shores. A few 
miles west of Milwaukie there is a considerable tract of coun- 
try where the mean temperature for January is 16 , while at 
St. Louis springs which occupies about the geographical cen- 
ter of Michigan, the mean temperature is only 22J , and 
none of the isothermal lines that enter Wisconsin at and 
above La Crosse, enter Michigan proper, at all ; they are deflect- 
ed, and bent upon themselves by the influence of this Lake, 
and Lake Superior so that they pass out through the West end 
of the latter Lake. 

Another striking singularity is this : that the only iso- 
thermals for January that reach Michigan from Wisconsin are 
those bearing the temperature of 19 and 20 . These two 



The Sum of these Influences. 21 

lines enter southern Wisconsin at Prairie Du Chien and pass 
obliquely northward and enter the extreme northern point of 
Michigan proper at Mackinac, two hundred miles farther north 
than Prairie Du Chien. 

The modification of the climate of Michigan by these in- 
fluences, is just as striking for any month of the year as for 
January. 

By looking at the map, the July isothermal of 72°is seen 
entering the North West corner ; this line is barely deflected 
one degree of latitude in passing through eight and a half de- 
grees of longitude. Suddenly however coming under the in- 
fluence of the lakes it falls through three degrees of latitude 
in nearly the same meredian, bringing it to Chicago ; from 
there it gradually rises to the center of Michigan, where, com- 
ing under the influence of Lake Huron, it is again deflected 
southward. 

Thus the average July temperature of Central Michigan 
is i° cooler than St. Paul, Minnesota ; a place more than one 
hundred miles farther North.* 

The severity of winter is so much mitigated on the west- 
ern slope of Michigan that some of the most delicious fruits 
of more southern latitudes are grown with success. This 
section of the State is known as the " Fruit Belt," and fre- 
quently the writer was told while there, that in a few years, 
when the woods are felled so as to let in the warm air from the 
Lakes, that this belt would be widened and gradually extend 
across the State. This is the firm belief of many of the far- 
mers and citizens of Central Michigan. 

The writer is only sorry that he cannot enjoy this happy 
anticipation with them. The summers will indeed be warmer, 
but not warm summers alone will make fruit districts. It is 
extreme cold, even if this extreme is only attained occasion- 
ally, that plays havoc with fruit growing, and when the woods 
of. Michigan are removed the central ridge of the State will 
be farther from the fruit belt than now. 

* For an account more in detail of the effects of these lakes on climate, the reader is re~ 
ferred to a paper with two maps in the proceedings of the American Association for the 
advancement of science for the year 1870, by Professor Alexander Winch ell, State Geologist. 
The map here shown is taken from his two. 



CHAPTER III 



MALARIA IN MICHIGAN. 

VISITORS NOT LIABLE TO MALARIOUS DISEASES. 

Malaria is an annual production of nearly every section of 
the United States. No State is entirely free from it. The 
Western States for well-known reasons, have gained consider- 
able notoriety for the number and frequency of Malarial dis- 
eases, within their borders. These diseases in Michigan, among 
natives, are of the mildest forms, much milder than those on 
the Chesapeake peninsula, to say nothing of the severer forms 
seen on the Virginia low lands, or in the Carolinas. 

I have taken special pains to ascertain the proportion of 
visitors to Michigan who became affected with Malarial dis- 
ease in any form last season, (187 1), and probably there was 
not greater than 2 per cent, so affected. Of this number fully 
ij per cent, were previously from malarious districts, while 
nearly the whole of the other J per cent, chose very unfavor- 
able quarters while in the State. Exceedingly few cases, were 
found where one or the other of these circumstances did not 
prevail. 

It is well known that a person may live in a malarious dis- 
trict of country for years and never be troubled with any of 
the diseases peculiar to the neighborhood, until he moves out 
of it. This fact has been corroborated in Michigan, and that 
State has gained the credit of causing the disease. No doubt 
if the visitors should remain many months exposed to the ma- 
laria of Michigan they would become affected by it, but the 
prevailing mildness of the types of these diseases usually seen 
among the natives of the State, would impress one with the 
necessity of considerable time to make an impression on one 
who is an entire stranger to such influences. 



24 Malaria of Michigan. 

SEC. 2. INFLUENCE OF FOREST FIRES. 

A writer has computed that not less than 480,000 acres 
of timbered land was burned over during the great conflagra- 
tions in the northwest last autumn, 1871. He estimates, 
as a chemical result of this immense burning, that not less 
than three million tons of carbon has been liberatedfrom its 
union with other elements. Every three pounds of this would 
take up eight pounds of oxygen, forming eleven pounds of 
carbonic acid gas. This increases the present quantity of that 
gas in the atmosphere twelve million tons, or one part to 
every sixteen hundred, normally existing there ; while the 
normal atmospheric oxygen has been decreased one part 
nearly in a million, or an amount equal to the supply of the 
earth for ten months. 

If the carbonic acid gas of the atmosphere has decreased 
one part in five thousand each century since the carboniferous 
era, then the north-western fires have restored the atmos- 
pheric condition of three hundred years ago. 

The effects thus produced a*e general. State, nation, 
continent, and hemisphere are affected alike : but there are 
certain local effects, effects upon the State and its climate, 
which come more clearly under the purpose of this work. 

200,000 acres of heavy woodland were burned in Michigan, 
and about an equal area of pasture, grass and grain-fields, 
including clearings and openings, were ako burned over. Of 
course the first effect of this will be an almost entire abolish- 
ment of all those influences attributed in the preceding pages 
to growing forests. In the next place the annihilation of 
almost incalculable quantities of dying and decaying vege- 
tation, the accumulation in the woods of the falling leaves, 
twigs and branches of centuries, forming the light spongy tex- 
ture of many inches in depth with which all are familiar who 
walk through woods, and in which decay, decomposition, and 
the evolution of malarial gasses is slowly going on, and which 
is immensely increased wherever the woodman's axe allows 



* Lake Side Monthly, Chicago, January, 1872. 



Influence of Forest Fires. 25 

the sun to enter. The vast quantity of green forest leaves 
just on the point of increasing the great accumulation, and the 
annual death of the pasture, grass, and grain fields with their 
decomposition just at its height, was all swept away as by the 
very besom of destruction. Large tracts of land were left as 
destitute of vegetation as the desert of Sahara, while on other 
tracts nothing was left but blackened pillars which seemed to 
mourn over this terrible desolation. 

But with such an immense destruction of vegetable mat- 
ter, it is impossible to conclude otherwise than that the quan- 
tity of malaria must be vastly diminished as well as all those 
diseases which are produced and aggravated by it. 

The woods thus destroyed can now be cleared of the 
charred trunks, (still good for sawing), without fear of an at- 
mosphere reeking with the effects of decomposition produced 
by the heat of the sun on decaying vegetation, for this latter 
has been swept away by the blaze. 

It might be supposed that the ingress gained by the sun to 
the low swamps of the woods, would cause, at least in many 
localities, a large increase in Malarial poison, but the fact of 
the fires occurring at the dryest season, after an almost entire 
absence of rain for many weeks, while the low lands were per- 
fectly dry, and the great intensity of the fire causing the utter 
destruction of every vestige of life on the surface of the ground, 
dispels such an idea. 

What has been said regarding the destruction of vegeta- 
ble life applies with equal force to the myriad millions of ani- 
mal life, such as insects, reptiles, and the whole list of smaller 
animals which abound in forests where inroads have been 
made. The result of animal decomposition is supposed by 
good authority to be a more serious cause of malarial disease 
than vegetable decay. If this view be correct, then the pre- 
vention of this immense annual decay by the blaze, is a posi- 
tive health-measure. 



CHAPTER IV 



MAGNETIC AND MINERAL WELLS. 

HISTORY OF THEIR DISCOVERY. 

During the summer of 1869 a company began boring the 
earth at St. Louis, Gratiot County Michigan, for salt water, 
with the intention, if successful, of establishing a salt-works. 
As the auger went down it passed through the following geo- 
logical formations : 

Clay, gravel and small boulders 40 feet 

Blue clay 30 feet 

Fire clay 13 

Sand and gravel 39 

Slate running into fine slate 1 5 

Coarse sand and gravel 55 
Small stones 6 

Rock 2 

Making a total of 200 feet bored. The diameter of the 
tubing was 3 J inches and it delivered 300 gallons of water per 
minute, and forced it 24 feet above the surface of the earth. 

The water was beautifully clear, sparkling and cold-50 F., 
and to the taste barely perceptibly alkaline. The water was 
not saline, and for manufacturing purposes it was abandoned. 
But its beauty and temperature and stimulating gases made 
it the popular drinking water of the town, and many used it 
for household purposes. The town council talked of buying 
it to supply the town with water. It was even proposed to 
lay pipes to Saginaw, thirty miles distant, and convey the wa- 
ter there for the use of the town for ordinary purposes. These 
schemes were however abandoned, and stock in the "St. Louis 
Salt Company" was about as flat as fresh water salt stocks 
ever get. Things were in this luckless shape, when some fel- 
low loafing around discovered that his knife blade stuck to 



28 Magnetic and Mineral Wells. 

the iron tubing that projected a few feet above ground, and 
from which the water flowed. The tube attracted, and then 
held like a magnet, his knife blade, and the blade was magnet- 
ized so that it would attract and hold such small articles as 
tacks, needles, watch keys, &c. 

This renewed the excitement toward the artesian well, 
and hundreds came* to get their knives magnetized. Articles 
and utensils of soft steel were subjected to the action of the 
water alone, and these were magnetized, according to the af- 
fidavits of many persons. There was an old paralytic in town 
who conceived the idea, and a very good one, that water and 
magnetism if good separately for his disease, ought to be still 
better if the two were combined, so he began drinking and 
bathing in the water, and the people in town saw him gradu- 
ally recover. The excitement at this juncture was intense. 
Rheumatics bathed and were relieved. Persons troubled with 
kidney and bladder difficulties drank of it and were relieved. 
The news of a Magnetic well and of its wonderful curative 
properties spread like wild fire in its rapidity, so that in two 
months over two hundred diseased persons were in St. Louis 
using the water. 

The Michiganers did not believe, however, that any spe- 
cial providence had favored this town, and that if there was 
Magnetic water in one place there might possibly be in anoth- 
er ; so this enterprising people went to boring, and by the sea- 
son of 1870 they had found no less than sixty wells of water, 
each one claiming to be magnetic. Some twenty-three of 
these waters have been advertised as containing mineral qual- 
ities, and those that have been analyzed show the statement 
to be correet. The magnetic properties at first claimed have 
been abandoned by nearly all of them. 

The following waters with the analysis of each, its loca- 
tion and other matters connected with it will be noticed in 
this volume : 



St. Louis, 


Fruit Port, 


Lansing, 


Grand Ledge, 


Alpena, 


Three Rivers, 


Albion, 


Eaton Rapids, 


Midland, 


Port Huron, 


Grand Rapids, 


Lesile, 


Muskegan, 


Hubbardston, 


Owosso, 


Rexford. 


Spring Lake, 


Menominee, 


Ostego, 





Are these waters Magnetic ? 29 

It is hardly necessary to say now that the " Magnetic and 
Mineral Springs of Michigan " are not springs at all, but Ar- 
tesian Wells, made by boring the earth to a depth varying 
from one hundred to several hundred feet. The water does 
not flow out of all of them by its own natural force, and con- 
sequently in many cases it has to be pumped out by wind or 
steam. Some of the above springs have bath-houses con- 
nected with them, differing in capacity, character and conve- 
nience. Other springs afford water only for drinking. 

Sec. 2. ARE THESE WATERS MAGNETIC ? 

POPULAR VIEWS. 

To the casual observer nothing would s,eem easier than to 
prove that certain wells of water were either magnetic or not 
magnetic. 

And yet, as the history of the discussion of this subject 
will show, there is and has been considerable difficulty in the 
way. In fact the disputants and experimenters on either side 
of the question have succeeded better in tearing to pieces the 
arguments of their opponents than in making whole their own 
side. 

That the iron tubing through which the water flows from 
some of these Artesian Wells is highly charged with magne- 
tism no one, I believe, now disputes, and it was from this fact 
that these waters first gained their reputation for possessing 
magnetic qualities, and this fact alone was cited as sufficient 
evidence of the presence of the qualities claimed as being in 
the water, and that the magnetism of the water magnetized 
the tube. 

In opposition to this view it is very justly maintained that 
iron tubing, rods, or pillars, placed in a line approaching the 
magnetic dip will become charged with terrestial magnetism 
by induction, no matter whether these articles be in the ground 
or on it, and that the tubing of these wells gains its magnetism 
in this way. 

Granting the full force of this truth, it does not, however, 
prove that the water may not also be magnetic in the same 



30 Magnetic and Mineral Wells. 

wells, or that it may not be magnetic in any other well than 
the one examined. 

The water used by Prof. S. P. Duffield was from the St. 
Louis well. I believe he conducted a portion of his experi- 
ments at the well. What the character of his investigations were 
I do not know, but they seem to have been at least satisfac- 
tory to him, for he says in his report on the analysis of this 
water, " Before making any report on the medical properties 
of the spring, I wish to call attention to the fact of the cur- 
rent of electricity or magnetism, (time and experiment must 
develop which) that the stream of water carries." Detroit, 
September 23d, 1869. 

During the winter of 1869-70 I tried some crude experi- 
ments, by placing small steel rods in jars holding water from 
the St. Louis well and I found that they invariably gained 
magnetism. Med. and Surg. Reporter Mch. 70. 

SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS. 

Prof. Winchell of the University of Michigan made some 200 
experiments with Eaton Rapids water, and in a paper read be- 
fore the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, 1870, comes to the following conclusions : 

" Mineral waters of Michigan tend to induce polarity, in 
the outer end of a rod of soft iron passed through a cork into a 
bottle of water." 

" This property is retained by water, weeks and months. 

" A rod of steel or a knife blade immersed in the water 
from twenty minutes to ten hours, acquires very sensible pol- 
arity, though practically neutral before immersion." 

To the conclusion drawn from these experiments that 
the water imparts magnetism to the metals, Prof. R. C. 
Kedzie of the Agricultural College of Michigan, in an elabor- 
ate paper in the Detroit Review of Medicine for July 1871, 
very strenuously objects. 

After quoting the above paragraphs from the paper of 
Prof. Winchell, he explains them by " the re-appearance of 
our old friend, terrestrial magnetism," and seems to insist that 



Scientific Experiments. 31 

the iron rods must be placed nearly vertically in the water, and 
when in that position they become magnetized whether in 
the water or out of it. While this is true, my own observation 
is to the effect that, metallic rods acquire polarity much faster 
while in the water near the verticle position than they do if 
kept in that position out of the water. Besides, Prof. Win- 
chell states explicitly in his paper, and just after the portion 
quoted by Prof. Kedzie that, " The fixed polarity communica- 
ted to a steel rod lying in a bottle of mineral water twelve 
hours is sufficient to deflect a bit of wire." 

''Steel rods lying thirty minutes in a stream of water flow- 
ing from a well over the ground, acquires sufficient polarity to 
deflect slightly, though they would not do it before." Nor do 
I think there is the least doubt on this point, though the ver- 
tical position, be it observed, is not used. Granting this fact, 
the question then arises, does this magnetic polarity exist in 
the water itself? does the water possess polarity, oris the pol- 
arity acquired by the steel rods the result of chemical action, 
the result of the action of the alkalies and salts of the water 
upon the iron ? Prof. Winchell inclines to the latter opinion, 
and he says, " This supposition is strengthened by the fact 
that the phenomena are as apparent with rods simply mois- 
tened as when they are immersed in water ; and further, the 
magnetic phenomena do not arise from pure rain water (in the 
best experiment) while they do apparently arise (at least in 
some experiments) from water artificially salted, or alkaline, 
and still further by the reputed fact that tarnished knife-blades 
are more easily magnetized than polished ones. 

My own experience does not accord with this except in 
the extreme feebleness of the phenomena induced by artifici- 
ally prepared water and the entire absence of it in rain water. 

Indeed Prof. Winchell states two objections to the chem- 
ical theory. "The apparent loss of magnetic power in a bottle 
of water 70 days old exposed to light and warmth," and, " If 
these magnetic indications arise from chemical action, it is 
difficult to perceive how they could be accompanied by the 
ordinary galvanic current, since we have not the requisite 



32 Magnetic and Mineral Wells. 

electro-positive and electro-negative bodies, unless, indeed, 
the cork of the glass could serve as the electro-negative ele- 
ment." 

I confess that the theory of chemical action in the pro- 
duction of the magnetic phenomena of these waters is very 
unsatisfactory. 

The question now turns upon the existence of polarity 
in the water itself. The negative side of this argument 
is given so ably and succinctly by Prof. Kedzie, that I make 
a lengthy extract from his paper. 

''Water in its chemical composition, is a perfectly neu- 
tral oxide of hydrogen. Farraday has shown, by very ingen- 
ious and convincing experiments, that oxygen is magnetic, 
while hydrogen, in the gaseous condition, is diamagnetic. 
Chemists have long suspected that hydrogen was the vapor 
of a metal, since all of its analogies are of the metallic class ; 
but the efforts of chemists to condense hydrogen into a liquid 
or solid were unsuccessful, and hence its metalic nature could 
only be surmised. But about three years ago, Prof. Graham, 
late master of the British mint, partially solved the problem 
by obtaining an alloy of hydrogen and the metal palladium, 
in which 900 volumes of gaseous hydrogen were condensed into 
one volume in forming the alloy with palladium. From ex- 
amining this alloy, Graham deducted that hydrogenium (as he 
named this metalic hydrogen) is a white metal, with a specific 
gravity about 2, and that it is distinctly magnetic, belonging 
to the class of magnetic metals which includes iron, nickel 
and cobalt. 

The admirable researches of Graham having shown that 
metalic hydrogen is magnetic, and the investigations of Far- 
aday having brought to notice the magnetic quality of oxygen, 
may not their combination, the oxide of hydrogen, possess 
magnetic properties ? An oxide of iron Fe3 O4, having the 
property of attracting particles of iron, and of imparting this 
property permanently to steel, was found near Magnesia in 
Asia Minor. The Greeks gave this ore the name Magnetes, 
from which comes our word magnet. This oxide is called 



Scientific Experiments. 33 

lodestone in Saxon, or leadstone, from the directive property 
of the magnetic needle. If an oxide of the magnetic metal 
iron has magnetic properties, may not an oxide of the mag- 
netic metal hydrogenium also possess magnetism ? perhaps 
it was reasoning by analogy of this kind which first led some 
of our scientific men to entertain the idea that water might 
be capable of magnetic polarity. 

A sufficient reply might be made that monoxides do not 
possess magnetic powers of any intensity, but only the com- 
bination of the monoxide and sesquioxide, e. g. FEO -'- FE 2 
O 3 == FE 3 O 4 , which has received the name of magnetic oxide. 
Water is a monoxide, and hydrogen forms no sesquioxide, and 
a monosesquioxide, or magnetic oxide, is therefore not possi- 
ble. The later researches of Faraday, however, have shown 
that all substances except nitrogen are susceptible of mag- 
netic influence." 

The main point to notice in giving this quotation the con- 
sideration to which it is so justly due, is the fact that only 
chemically pure water, water carefully distilled, a perfectly 
neutral oxide of hydrogen was under notice, while the water 
pertinent to the discussion is just the reverse, a chemically 
impure water, the oxide of hydrogen holding in solution vari- 
ous salts, alkalies and chemical combinations. 

Therefore while the proof is competent in one case, it is 
insufficient in the other. Chemically, pure water is not seen in 
nature, it is a production of art. Rain water is not pure, com- 
mon well or spring water is less so, and mineral spring water 
is still less so, chemically speaking. This view of the error 
of argument seems to gain at least plausibility by the fact 
stated by the above writer, that the more recent researches 
of Faraday, show that while iron, nickel and cobalt only, of 
all substances, are perceptible to ordinary magnetic influences, 
yet when magnets of extraordinary power were employed, all 
substances except nitrogen were found to be susceptible to 
their influence. May there not be some truth after all in 
some of the fanciful theories that place scores of enormous 
magnets in the bowels of Michigan over which these waters, 
laden with minerals, flow in their rapid exit ? 



34 Magnetic and Mineral Springs. 

The following- experiments were performed by Prof. Ked- 
zie himself, and the objection made above as to the character 
of the water will not apply here, as I presume he used common 
water, though he does not say so. 

"To test the matter, whether water itself not magnetic, 
yet flowing from a source or along a channel charged with 
magnetism, might sweep along this magnetic influence, and 
thus impart magnetism to bodies placed in the flow of its cur- 
rent, I made the following investigation : I first magnetized 
an iron tube by applying to it a strong horse-shoe magnet ; 
through this magnetized tube I caused a stream of water to 
flow, the water passing from the iron tube into a porcelain 
tube containing a steel bar. In this way the water flowed 
through a magnetized tube over a steel bar for an hour, but 
without developing any magnetic condition of the bar. It 
has been objected to this experiment, that it was not a fair 
one, because the water contained no iron, while these mineral 
waters all contain a small amount of soluble carbonate of 
iron, which may have some influence in producing a magnetic 
state which my experiment failed to take into the account. 
To remove this objection I repeated the experiment, using 
instead of lime water a solution of Sulphate of iron, contain- 
ing four ounces of sulphate to a gallon of water. Instead of 
applying a single horse-shoe magnet I used a combination of 
horse-shoe magnets, known as a magnetic battery. So strong- 
ly was the iron bar magnetized that on sifting iron filings 
over this, the particles arranged themselves over the surface, 
standing out from it like stiff bristles. Yet on passing the 
solution of sulphate of iron through a tube thus magnetized, 
and then over a steel bar in a glass tube for an hour, no de- 
velopment of magnetism in the steel bar could be detected. 

To make this proof still stronger I caused a stream of 
water to flow through a magnetic helix, and then to flow over 
a steel bar as before. The magnetic helix has a power a hun- 
dred fold stronger than a simple magnet, so great indeed that 
an iron bar held near the Cavity will leap into it with surpris- 
ing force and remain suspended in the air by the magnetic 



Scientific Experiments. 35 

force of the helix. If it is possible for water to receive and 
convey magnetic influence, water flowing through such a hel- 
ix, and having a force probably five hundred times stronger 
than the earth's magnetism, ought certainly to impart mag- 
netism to a steel bar placed in its current, and magnetism of 
such intensity as to make itself manifest to the usul tests. 
But no such results followed. The steel bar placed in a stream 
of water flowing through a glass tube placed in such a mag- 
netic helix, and kept for half an hour in this stream, showed 
no development of any magnetic condition." 

Dr. Kedzie comes to the conclusion, therefore, that water 
is not susceptible of magnetism, and cannot convey it. 

An experiment of my own seems more satisfactory on 
this point. I took a battery of sixty smee cells and connect- 
ed one pole to the nozzle of a metalic tube, having a bore of 
about ^ inch, by wrapping the wire on it for two inches, 
which was nearly its whole length. To one end of this metal 
tube I fixed an india-rubber tube having \ inch diameter, and 
caused a stream of water to flow through it, with the full force 
of the St. Louis well. The other pole of the battery was held 
in my hand. On bringing the stream of water to within two 
inches of the lips and tongue, the metalic taste of the electric 
current was quite perceptible ; on moving the stream so as to 
let it strike the eyebrow, the flash was distinct on opening 
and closing the circuit, and when the stream of water was al- 
lowed to fall on the hand holding the other pole, the stinging 
was very decided. I tried this experiment on several other 
persons with a like result. 

The metalic tube in this experiment became a helix. And 
certainly in this case, there was no way by which all the phe- 
nomena usually manifested to the senses, on the closing and 
opening of the circuit could be produced, except that formed 
by the stream of water. 

This same experiment was tried by using water from Pine 
river, forced through the metalic tube by a large Davidson 
syringe, with a similar result, only the effect seemed percepti- 
bly weaker. There is no doubt, then, but that ordinary water 



36 Magnetic and Mineral Springs. 

can be magnetized, and the usual phenomena of such a con- 
dition are increased in intensity by the addition of saline and 
alkaline ingredients. 

Prof. Charles P. Williams, Director of the School of Mines 
of Missouri, says :* " From the analysis of these waters we 
certainly have no key to the causes of this interesting peculi- 
arity, though we may suspect it to be ascribable to electrical 
action, itself the result of chemical decomposition of the sa- 
line constituents of the water." 

At present, the line of experiment leans to the side hold- 
ing the view of the presence of Magnetic qualities, in at least 
some of these waters. What future research will determine, 
it is hardly possible to conjecture. 

MAGNETIC AND MINERAL SPRINGS. 

SEC. 3. RUNNERS FOR SOME OF THEM. 

Although several thousand persons visited Michigan 
for the benefit of her springs during '70 and '71, yet the 
supply of springs was greatly in excess of the demand, and 
thereby a lively competition was brought about. In order to 
keep a decent number of persons at some of these places, dis- 
reputable practices were resorted to by the proprietors ; 
among these is one still in vogue of sending out "Runners," or 
men hired to travel on the different lines of Rail Road enter- 
ing the state, and by any sort and all sorts of representations 
induce invalids to visit the particular springs the runner trav- 
els for. They are a plausible, smooth tongued set of fellows, 
with very few scruples of conscience so they get the unsuspect- 
ing into their confidence. 

Each one has a long list of wonderful cures to tell about ; 
one or more of these cures were of persons " afflicted" just as 
the invalid is to whom he is talking. He tells of splendid ac- 
commodations, elegant society, and that he has some friends 
there who are rapidly improving. The invalid is made, if pos- 
sible, to think that he has run across a disinterested philan- 

* American Exchange and Review, 1871. 



Quacks in Michigan. 37 

thropist, instead of a man hired to repeat his story day after 
day, and to inquire feelingly into every sick person's condition. 

Last summer, a lady who was traveling with her husband 
for his health told me, that she had scarcely gotten into 
Southern Michigan before a very kind spoken and apparently 
sincere man, of middle age, noticing the comparative helpless- 
ness of her husband, expressed, after some inquiry, much feel- 
ing and sympathy for him and then told his story, which was 
sufficient to induce them to change their course and plans, and 
to visit the springs which this person lauded so highly. She 
remained there only a day or two however, and then started 
again to carry out her original plan of visiting another spring, 
when she was again captured by one of these scoundrels and 
persuaded to go in another direction, she not suspecting but 
that both men were perfectly honest and disinterested. She 
did not like the second place, however, and again set out on 
her original journey. 

Her husband was affected with softening of the brain and 
his physicians had said that he was incurable, but recommend- 
ed travel. But the third runner she was destined to meet 
told her that he knew of several cases of that disease that had 
been cured that season at a certain spring, and he advised her 
by all means to go there. She thanked him but said she had 
concluded not to turn off any more from her journey, but if the 
spring he spoke of would cure such cases she would advise him 
to go there at once, whereupon the runner retired. The fact 
is, no spring that resorts to such disreputable practices is wor- 
thy of patronage, and should not receive it. If the medicinal 
qualities of its waters and the reputation it gains in an honora- 
ble way will not keep the spring up, it ought to fall, and will 
fall sooner or later. Then beware of runners and the springs 
that send them out. 

Sec. 4. quacks in Michigan. 

The development of the Mineral Springs of Michigan 
into suitable resorts for invalids, has drawn thence an almost 
innumerable army of Quacks, Charlatans, and the basest pre- 
tenders that ever cursed any spot of earth. 



38 Magnetic and Mineral Springs. 

Men, and women too, not only of the deepest moral tur- 
pitude, but most generally of the grossest ignorance of the 
human system, either in its normal condition or in disease, by 
means of long and flaming advertisements and " cappers" and 
"runners" — other men and women as base as the pretender — 
succeed in filching the pockets of hundreds of unsuspecting 
and unsophisticated invalids who visit the State. 

Here Quackery and Charlatanism take every possible 
shape. Men with the old boot of Jounod proclaim themselves 
as the apostles of some new depurative process by which the 
" circulation of the Vital Forces are restored, and the vicious 
fluids of the human body are removed." 

Women with their little humming, magnetic batteries, 
proclaim themselves as " Great Electro-Magnetic Physicians," 
while they are as ignorant of the principles involved in any 
word of their entitular as they are of the geology of the re- 
motest star in space. Others of these women by looking at 
these stars, stars away out beyond telescopic range, can diag- 
nose with a nicety that puts DaCosta to blush. 

Men prescribe for diseased invalids, who boast that all the 
knowledge they possess of medicine or the physical organiza- 
tion of man, they derived from a miserable, filthy Indian 
Squaw ! I have known a man bring his wife a thousand miles 
for the benefit of Mineral Waters, and then subject her to the 
treatment of one of these " Learned Physicians." Some of 
these robbers, base their pretensions upon being born in the 
dark of the moon, with a club-foot ; they are " natural-born 
Doctors," and tell organic disease in any portion of the body, 
by smelling the urine of the patient ! 

There is another class of pretenders who, perhaps, pos- 
sess some elementary medical education ; who hail from some 
Royal College, and are always late of the " Royal Hospital of 
London." 

They are utterly shameless, irresponsible, wandering, street- 
howling vagabonds, without a home, a country, or God. They 
give free lectures at street corners, free consultations, " no 
cure no pay," and charge forty prices for some worthless medi- 
cine, by which means they eke out a miserable existence. 



Quacks in Michigan. 39 

Last summer, one of these scoundrels added to his busi- 
ness, that of selling diplomas from the Edinburgh University, 
of which he was a professor. For a reasonable compensation 
he could furnish your name with M. D., A. M., D. D., or LL. 
D., or all of them. Upon strict examination, it also turned 
out that "Edinburgh University " was located in the fourth 
story of a house on Clark Street in the city of Chicago ! 

These Quacks drive their nefarious business by means of 
cappers in about this way : The Quack goes to a Spring where 
there are from 50 to 500 invalids, takes a room, and has his 
two emissaries, — who pretend to be unacquainted with each 
other, and with the Quack, — to visit amongst the invalids and, 
in a casual conversation, to find out the leading symptoms and 
disease, if possible, of some one. The invalid is assured by the 
capper that he knows of several persons who have been cured 
of the same disease by this great Doctor, and persuades the 
invalid to call on him, that it will cost nothing. If this does 
not succeed, in a day or two the other capper tries him, in the 
meantime the invalid's name and symptoms have been handed 
to the Quack, so that if the invalid does call, he is told at 
once what his complaint is. The patient is pleased, and a 
heavy fee is extorted. Some of the most successful cappers 
are women, of good dress and manners, who operate mostly 
among their own sex. 

One thing is certain, the Spring companies and the pro- 
prietors of hotels where visitors are entertained should protect 
their guests from the ravages of these ignorant, mercenary 
hordes, by exposing their schemes and quackery, and by put- 
ting their sick visitors upon their guard. I believe many of the 
proprietors of hotels and springs do so, but not all of them. 
I know one instance certainly where an attendant, a sham- 
pooer, was discharged from one spring for his grasping ava- 
riciousness and mendacity, and he went to another, farther 
down the State, dubbed himself doctor and took many of the 
invalids of that spring under his Medical (!) charge as well 
as his mechanical, and I have heard that women actually sub- 
mitted to the manipulations of this brazen ignoramus, under 
his representations of his superior magnetic qualities. 



40 Magnetic and Mineral Springs. 

The last time I heard of this man he was giving, for fees, 
advice to invalids regarding the right use of mineral spring 
waters, a subject of which he is as ignorant as Balaam's Ass 
was of quadratic equations, and the proprietors of the place 
that keeps him must know it ; at any rate it is their duty to 
inform themselves of the character and ability of men whom 
they place in such important positions. 

Frequently these cappers imitate or feign diseases, and 
visit among the visitors and sick, eliciting sympathy ; capper 
No. 2 takes this opportunity to tell what wonderful cures he 
has known Dr. so and so to make, the malingerer goes 
to see him with some others who are doubtful of his skill, the 
capper is cured, of course, and the quack has a big run of cus- 
tom for awhile, but generally winds up by running away him- 
self. 



CHAPTER V 



WATER AS A MEDICINE. 

ITS ANCIENT USE. 

Water as a remedial agent for the relief of the maladies 
of the human race appears on the first page of historical med- 
icines. In all ages, in all countries, by all people, water has 
ever been held in the highest repute as a medicine. Hippoc- 
rates made it a subject of study and observation, and his writ- 
ings upon it are still extant. 

Galen devoted much time to a personal examination into 
its merits. Following these, we find such illustrious names 
in the medical profession as Boerhave, Hoffman, Haller, Bay- 
nard, Floyer, Cheynes, Macquart, Lanzani, Geoffrey, Pomme, 
and DeHahn, down to James Johnson, James Currie, and John 
Bell of our day ; all eminent writers on the hygienic and ther- 
apeutic use of water. It comes to us, therefore, with the au- 
thority of centuries of experience. Pointed out by nature at 
the dawn of man's existence as a remedy, it has stood the 
ordeal test in all the innumerable phases of his life, and has 
become the most universal in its application of all the agents 
for the preservation of health and cure of disease. 

Nor is this to be wondered at when we reflect that four- 
fifths of all the tissues composing the body are water. Indeed 
the same proportion holds good in regard to the various arti- 
cles that compose the diet and drink of man. Digestion can- 
not be carried on without a large proportion of water, the food 
taken could not be reduced to chyme nor the chyme furnish 
chyle, nor the chyle produce blood. The blood could not 
flow to the various organs and there deposit their apportion- 
ate material. 

Water is the only liquid which is absolutely required for 
F 



42 Water as a Medicine. 

the growth, sustenance, and perfection of man, physically. 
Water is required for the removal of effete and deleterious 
matters from the system. Water is the quickest and most 
complete source of muscular power. The porters of the 
Andes, the most powerful and enduring in the world, habitu- 
ally drink quite warm water on their journeys ; they do it to 
gain strength. Alexander Selkirk, the genuine Robinson 
Crusoe, vvho spent four years alone, on the island of Juan 
Fernandez, eating nothing but goat's meat and drinking 
nothing but water, asserted that he was twice as strong as he 
ever was in his life. 

MODERN VIEWS. 

Drs. Bidder and Schmidt inform us that water increases 
the flow of the bile in its solid as well as fluid contents. 

A dog was taken weighing 5 kilogrammes and fed on the 
following articles with the following results : 

GRAMMES GRAMMES OF BILE OF SOLID MATTER IN IT. 

185 Beef 2.283 w ith °- I 35 

25 " 158 water with it 4.030 0.117 

185 water alone 5*165 0.143 

This was verified in three other experiments. 

Water is an augment to the quantity and power of the 
gastric juice, and warm water is a direct and powerful renew- 
er of the secretions of the stomach. 

Standing, therefore, in the midst of a progressive physiol- 
ogy and an enlightened practice, can we wonder, as Dr. T. 
K. Chambers says, " that such a powerful agent has been set 
upon a pedestal to be worshiped as a panacea for all human 
ills?" whilst I reject such pretensions, I recognize in water a 
powerful agent, one of the many placed here by Providence 
for the benefit of our race. Being thus powerful, we should 
guard every avenue to the improper use of it. The abuse of 
it, like the abuse of any of the great blessings of Providence, 
redounds to our injury. 



Water as a Medicine. 43 

If this be true of water in common, it applies with much 
more force to the waters from those rare fountains containing 
intricately compounded medicines from the great laboratories 
of nature — water containing all those chemical ingredients of 
the tissues, organs, and fluids of the human body, and of the 
material which constitutes his aliment. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE PROPER USE OF MINERAL WATERS. 

NECESSITY OF CARE. 

To receive from Mineral Waters, either as a drink or as a 
bath, their full remedial effects, requires, on the part of invalids 
or their advisers, a thorough knowledge of the water to be 
used ; not only the chemical formula, but the action and val- 
ue of each ingredient, and of the combination with each other 
and all other ingredients on the various organs of the human 
system, but also a knowledge of the diseases to be treated. To 
know how to distinguish between them, to know the various 
causes that produce the same disease, to know how far each 
particular disease has progressed, to know the value of symp- 
toms, whether they indicate organic and permanent disease, or 
functional and temporary disorder, thorough acquaintance 
with the performance of each organ of the body in health is 
necessary, in order to point out clearly how much disease has 
affected them ; and the application of the remedy in question 
requires a nicety and skill that can be attained only by this 
knowledge and experience in the use of the water. The per- 
son who, without sound information regarding any tissue or 
organ of the economy in health or disease, attempts to coun- 
sel others in regard to the use of such remedies, assumes a 
responsibility which, to educated minds, is simply appalling, 
and of which the pretended counselor is grossly ignorant or 
he would not assume it. 

This subject has been considered of such vital importance 
in Europe, that at many of the Mineral Springs mostly resorted 
to, governments have appointed physicians to reside perma- 
nently, and give such advice as may be necessary to the safe 
and speedy recovery of the sick. The proprietors of the most 



4.6 The Proper use of Mineral Waters. 

popular springs in this country have found it necessary to 
make similar appointments. 

MEDICAL ADVISERS. 

" The Medical Adviser at all our popular watering places 
has, necessarily, very delicate and responsible duties devolved 
upon him. To some extent he must be the recipient, in a pro- 
fessional point of view, of the confidence of the invalid stran- 
ger who has left a distant home to seek at medicinal foun- 
tains the best remedy for the maladies of which he hopes to 
be relieved. This confidence, while it is agreeable to the hon- 
orable mind is not without onerous responsibility. 

A sufficient knowledge of various mineral springs to en- 
able the medical adviser to judge correctly of their specific 
character and adaptations, unfolds at once to him a wide field 
for the exercise of skill and judgment, in selecting for his pa- 
tient the one best adapted to the nature and wants of his case. 

All the fountains of healing, with their varied modified 
influences, (for each one differs in some essential particulars 
from all the others,) should be regarded as so many different 
articles in nature's materia medica ; each possessing adapta- 
tions somewhat peculiar to itself, for the different diseases or 
states of the system. Here, then, is a wide range for the 
medical adviser, and his tact and success in advising most 
wisely will necessarily depend upon his acquaintance with 
the peculiar qualities and specific effects of all these different 
agents. 

Again, such an adviser, to be most useful to his patients, 
must be careful not to be influenced by his loco persona, or 
,to regard the particular fountain over whose medical direction 
he presides as a Catholicon, and adapted better than any oth- 
er to all sorts and conditions of cases. A medical adviser, at 
a mineral fountain, could not well fall into a greater error, or 
more clearly evince a want of wise discrimination, than in 
finding his remedy, in all cases, in the particular agent which 
he immediately directs ; for, in the nature of things, such 
universal preference would often be misplaced. Standing in 



The Penalty. 47 

the delicate relation which such an adviser holds to the in- 
valid,; public, he must regard the various mineral agencies 
around him somewhat in the same light in which he regards 
the various medicines of the apothecary's shop, and should 
wisely and freely choose among them for the use and benefit 
of his patients. Any other course would be empirical, hazard- 
ous to the best interests of the unfortunate invalid, and utter- 
ly unworthy of his confidence." Mineral Springs of Virginia. 

THE PENALTY. 

If all waters were similar in their effects upon all diseases, 
their action would be so exceedingly simplified that there 
would not be much danger of their improper use. But the 
very reverse of this is the case. Mineral waters differ very es- 
sentially in their chemical composition. They affect different 
diseases diversely, and the same water produces diametrically 
opposite effects in the same disease, depending entirely on the 
quantity of water given, the time, the temperature of the 
water, either as a drink or a bath, the length of time spent in 
the bath, and many other considerations. In fact, very few 
persons are affected exactly alike by mineral waters. 

A number of persons who were at St. Louis springs last 
summer, will remember a man by the name of Squires, a pale, 
emaciated dyspeptic, who came to the bath-house for the first 
time one beautiful morning in July ; he sat down by one of 
the fountains, and, at somebody's advice "who was 'held' 
just like him and was cured," he drank two large glasses of 
water as it poured from the fountain at 50 temperature. He 
was soon carried into the Physician's office with severe gastric 
pains, an attenuated flickering pulse, cold skin, pallid, sunken 
countenance, and other evidences of intense prostration ; he 
rallied sufficiently to be moved to his boarding house, but he 
never recovered from the effect of tilting nearly a pint of quite 
cold water into an anaemic, depraved and wornout stomach. 

Now, the feature of Ac. Alkaline water, which is most uni- 
versally observed by persons, is, that they can drink a pint of 
it without feeling the least inconvenience. 



48 Proper use of Mineral Waters. 

Prof. Moorman, resident Physician of White Sulphur 
Springs, Virginia, mentions a case where quite serious results 
came near following a patient who drank twelve glasses of 
water in one day, instead of six as he was directed. 

THE BATH. 

I am informed by Physicians at springs where there are 
bathing facilities, that they are frequently called to rescue 
persons from the effect of some foolish experiment on them- 
selves, with various kinds of baths, which they knew nothing 
about. Persons of old age, or weak nerves, tender constitu- 
tion, or cold, phlegmatic temperaments, anemia, debility of 
gastric mucous membrane, flatulence, nausea, or diarrhoea, 
should commence the use of cold water, in any shape, very 
guardedly. 

On the other hand, large plethoric persons, and others 
with a tendency to branial or other congestions, to hemorrha- 
ges, or who have affections of the heart, and those diseases 
where stimulation is injurious, should avoid the hot bath. A 
large number of cases are published in various works, of se- 
rious and sometimes fatal injury from recklessness in the use 
of hot baths. No one unaccustomed to hot baths has any 
business in one, except under medical advice. 

I have several times known hot baths to produce serious 
vertigo and palpitation of the heart, and in one instance a la- 
tent epilepsy was developed in a self-willed young man by the 
same means. 

I have never met with any case that required two full 
baths a day, and I have known several invalids who were in a 
hurry to get well, get worse by the trial of them. 

Dr. Hanbury Smith, who of late years has paid more at- 
tention to the subject of mineral waters than most any one 
in this couutry, in one of his papers makes the following very 
sensible suggestions : 

GENERAL RULES. 

The best time of the year to use mineral waters must be 



General Rules. 49 

decided by circumstances. The height of a hot summer or 
the depth of a cold winter are certainly not the best times. 
The portion of the year during which the patients can most 
enjoy moderate exercise in the open air is unquestionably 
the most proper time during which to carry out an effective 
course of treatment. But in a less active way mineral waters 
may be most advantageously employed in all seasons. 

The best time of the day for drinking is the morning, the 
earlier the better. In the morning the body is refreshed by 
rest, the mind tranquil, the stomach empty, and the quantity 
of fluid in the system being diminished, the water is more ea- 
sily tolerated, digested and absorbed. At least a quarter of 
an hour should elapse between each glass, and from twenty 
minutes to half an hour or more between the last glass and 
breakfast. 

The waters may be taken on an empty stomach at any 
other period of the day half an hour before the latest meal, or 
before going to bed. 

When requisite to relieve acidity of stomach, an alkaline 
water may be taken so soon after meals as the acidity is remark- 
ed ; and in some cases where iron waters taken on an empty 
stomach produce headache, they do not do so if taken with or 
immediately after a meal. 

Mineral waters should not be taken too cold. Though 
less agreeable, they are vastly more efficacious in the majority 
of cases when warm or tepid. At most cold springs in Eu- 
rope, means are taken to raise the temperature to the degree' 
which experience has shown to be the best for each class of 
cases. This is generally effected by the addition of some of 
the natural water kept hot for the purpose, warm milk or whey. 

All persons using mineral waters should dress warmly. 

The diet should be simple and easy of digestion. The 
appetite is generally stimulated by the use of the waters, but 
should be restrained within moderate bounds. In more seri- 
ous cases, requiring a regular course of treatment, salt and 
smoked articles of diet must be avoided. Where there is 
great tendency to obesity, farinaceous food like rice and pota- 
G 



50 Proper use of Mineral Waters. 

toes should be very sparingly indulged in. In these cases, 
and in all where the digestive organs are implicated, much 
gentle exercise in the open air should be indulged in. 

May, June, September and October, will be the months 
when the most improvement may be expected in such cases, 
while complaints, for the cure of which an abundant excretive 
action of the skin is desirable, such as chronic rheumatism, 
gout, catarrh of the respiratory mucous membrane, &c, are 
more amenable to treatment during the hotter summer 
months. During the winter months Russian and Turkish 
baths are powerful adjuvants to the mineral waters, particu- 
larly in obstinate rheumatic cases, sciatica, neuralgia, and ca- 
tarrh. At most of the German Springs, all sorts of additions 
are made to the natural waters. To mix one-third or one- 
half of warm milk or whey is much in vogue, especially in 
cases of pulmonary disorder. A quantity of the natural water 
is also kept hot to mix with that fresh drawn from the spring, 
for the purpose of raising its temperature, when this is too low 
for the particular case. Of course the water is generally much 
changed in composition by this process of heating. The 
waters of different springs are thus mixed, and the salt pre- 
pared by evaporating the waters consisting only of sulphate 
and carbonate of soda, is added by the teaspoonful, not only 
at Carlsbad but at other Spas also. This system of adding 
and mixing may, of course, be abused, and interferes with ex- 
act observations on the effects of the water pure and simple. 
.A pure chalybeate may be added to any other water deficient 
in iron. Finally, some waters proving at first a little too 
strong to agree well with the stomach, may very properly be 
diluted with simple carbonic acid or even common drinking 
water. 

The glasses or beakers used in Europe are much smaller 
than our half-pint tumblers, one of the latter being the com- 
mon, two being ordinarily an ample dose in almost any case. 
Experience and professional advice must govern the employ- 
ment of larger quantities. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ST. LOUIS MAGNETIC SPRINGS. 

ST. LOUIS. 

This is a quiet, very pleasant little town of 1200 inhabit- 
ants, situated on the south side of the Pine River, in Gratiot 
County, 30 miles west of Saginaw, and the same distance north 
of St. Johns, a town on the Detroit and Milwaukie Rail Road 
with which it connects by a daily line of stages. 

To Saginaw there is a plank road, and a good set of 
coaches run daily to and from the springs. Saginaw is reach- 
ed from the east, via Detroit by the Detroit & Milwaukie Rail 
Road and Flint & Perre Marquette Rail Road. From the 
south by Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Rail Road. 

From Chicago by Michigan Central or Michigan Southern, 
connecting with Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Rail Road. 
A rail road is being rapidly built from Saginaw to St. Louis 
and during this season 1872, it will be completed. 

St. Louis has four hotels capable of accommodating about 
300 visitors ; while the private boarding-houses, some of them 
are very good, can accommodate as many more. 

The town boasts of a well-organized fire department — a 
very good thing to have in Michigan, — 3 or4 Religious societies, 
as many Lodges of secret organizations, a public library, the 
finest bath-house in the United States, billiard rooms, chess 
rooms and ten pin alleys. St. Louis is a new town, having been 
hewn out of the forest, mainly within the magnetic period, and 
if her people have no ancient and stately mansions, they cer- 
tainly have comfortable homes, and real western hospitality. 



52 St. Louis Magnetic Springs. 

CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 

The following analysis of this water was made by Dr. 
Samuel P. Duffield, of Detroit Medical College, in the fall of 
1869, at the time the electrical condition of the water was 
being so generally discussed. 

It is calculated on the imperial or wine gallon S. G. ion. 

Sulphate Lime 66. 50 

Silicate Lime 6.72 

Chloride, a trace 

Bi-carbonate Soda 106.40 

" Lime 69.40 

" Magnesia 17*50 

" Iron L20 

Silica, Free 2 88 

Organic matter and loss 2.00 

Total constituents 1 272.60 

Bi-carbonates 194. 50 

Free Carbonic Acid in gallon 6. 21 

Sulphureted Hydrogen, traces 

Total Mineral matter in gallon 276.81 

In its chemical combinations this spring belongs to that 
valuable class known as Acidulo Alkaline, resembling some- 
what the celebrated Vichey water, and Seltzers Altwasser 
and Saltstraunen Reincez of Germany. " Looking at its 
chemical composition," says Prof. Duffield, " its percentage of 
the bi-carbonate of soda, magnesia, and lime, will make it 
valuable in Kidney difficulty, and in those diseases which re- 
quire treatment with alkaline carbonates such as rheumatism 
in its chronic forms ; " he " regards it as being valuable chiefly 
in Kidney disorders, especially those of the uric acid diathe- 
sis." Its electrical qualities, he thinks, "will be found in the 
hands of the observing practitioner, of value in paralytic 
cases." 

The sample, of which the above is the analysis, had been 
standing in a tin can for some three or four weeks previous to 
the investigation, and it is probable that some of the consti- 



Colors Glass. 53 

tuents had deposited. Particularly may this be true of the 
iron, which would be rapidly converted into hydrated ferric 
oxide, and hence give a much lower content of the chalybeate 
constituent than usually obtains in the freshly-collected sam- 
ple. That the water is rich in iron-salts is made evident by 
the fact that hydrated peroxide is rapidly deposited on articles 
immersed in it, and the author has in his possession a small 
wine-glass which had been used for a short time in drinking 
the waters, and which is completely enfilmed with a coating 
that, on a qualitative analysis, proves to be mainly ferric oxide 
with traces of carbonates of lime and magnesia. This film of 
deposited matter is so closely united with the surfaces, both 
exterior and interior of the glass, that severe rubbing and 
washing will not remove it. The glass still preserves its 
transparency, and transmits a yellowish light which, though 
somewhat darker, still closely resembles that which has had 
passage through a glass deeply colored by uranium oxide. 
The coating dissolves readily in warm hydrochloric acid, the 
solution showing the ingredients we have named above. The 
demand for this colored glass by visitors has become so great 
that two rooms have been arranged especially for coloring it. 
A series of troughs, with perforated bottoms, are fixed above 
one another. Above the top one a continual shower of water 
is falling, which passes from one trough to another, and thus 
colors dozens of pieces at once. The waters of Eaton Rapids, 
Midland and some other places, also color glass. 

The importance of iron, medicinally, is so well established, 
and so generally known, that it is useless to mention the nu- 
merous diseases for which it is daily administered. 

Sulphureted hydrogen gas imparts considerable stimulation 
to the effects of mineral waters taken internally ; while the 
carbonic acid, by its stimulation, gives a peculiarly exhilerat- 
ing effect to baths. Persons in the habit of bathing in min- 
eral waters, can tell immediately the presence or absence of 
this important ingredient. The presence of it imparts a light, 
airy, pleasurable feeling, which the recipient is sure to mention 
in rather enthusiastic terms. Taken internally this water is 
tonic, diuretic and aperient. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ALPENA MAGNETIC WELL. 
LOCATION. ANALYSIS. 

This well is situated in the town from which it takes its 
name, a thriving shore-town of Thunder Bay, about a hundred 
miles south of Mackinaw. Alpena is the center of the fish 
trade of Lake Huron, and being situated at the mouth of 
Thunder Bay River, that stream furnishes pine logs in great 
abundance for the saw mills of the town, and with what comes 
down on rafts makes it quite a lumbering point. It has con- 
siderable commerce and about 2500 population, and several 
churches and fine schools. For visitors the accommodations 
are very good. The place is reached from Saginaw by steam- 
ers three times a T veek, and from Detroit once a week. 

The water flows from a depth of 900 feet, coming from 
below the rock formations. 

CHEMICAL ANALYSIS: 

Specific gravity 1,012 
In a gallon. 

Bicarbonate of Soda 15,736 

" Lime 55,136 

*' Magnesia 62,920 

" Iron 1,840 

Sulphate of Lime 30,056 

Silica and Aluminum 3,088 

Chloride Sodium (Salt) 68,256 

Organic Matter and Loss , 928 



237,960 



Total mineral constituents, 237,032 grains. Sulphureted Hydrogen 
gas, 3.91 cubic inches. Carbonic acid gas, a trace. 



$6 Alpena Magnectic Well. 

This is a good sulphur water, the best in the State proba- 
bly, and is no doubt serviceable in chronic cutaneous diseases, 
especially in connection with bathing facilities, which are 
afforded at the well. 

Sulphur baths are an efficient and powerful remedy when 
properly administered in cases where they are clearly indi- 
cated. 

The baths treatment should be preceded by a gentle 
opening of the emunctories, and as there is a considerable 
chlor. sodic element in the water, I should suppose two or 
three day's course of drinking two or three pints per diem, 
would place the alimentary canal in a soluble condition, while 
at the same time the alkaline element would set the kidneys 
to acting freely. These points being attended to, the baths 
will prove more salutary. 

THERAPEUTIC VALUE. 

The spring has a resident physician, and issues a pamphlet, 
but it gives no account of the physiological or therapeutic 
action of the water, which to say the least, is an egregious blun- 
der. We are assured, however, that it cures paralysis, rheuma- 
tism, dyspepsia, &c. But that this water cures dyspepsia, just 
because it is dyspepsia, without any modus operandi or action 
that can be described, I presume few will believe. Besides 
there are classes of disease in which sulphur waters are fear- 
fully injurious, and the better the prominent quality of the 
water is, the greater is the injury. Among these diseases are 
consumption, pulmonary hemorrhages, all forms of cancer and 
general lowering of the constitution attended with chronic 
diarrhoea. 

All sulphur waters will generally reduce the force and 
frequency of the pulse. This is not the effect of direct seda- 
tive action upon the heart, but from its alterative and deob- 
struent agency. Hence in certain organic affections of the heart, 
these sulphur waters are injurious, while in a larger class of 
sympathetic heart affections arising from visceral engorge- 
ment or obstruction, these waters would be eminently useful. 



Therapeutic Value. 57 

The effects of the Sulphur Water upon the human body 
resemble mercury in several respects. Not to mention others, 
its resemblance is strikingly manifest from the fact of its pro- 
ducing salivation under certain peculiar circumstances. An- 
other marked similarity may be mentioned, especially as it 
has a direct bearing upon the proper method of its adminis- 
tration : I allude to the existence of a philogistic diathesis 
in individuals with whom either remedy is used. When the 
system resists the specific action of mercury, it is a certain 
test that the inflammatory diathesis prevails to a considerable 
extent, and this is the cause of the resistance ; for lessen the 
inflammatory diathesis by proper evacuations and the specific 
action of the mercury will be readily induced. The system 
often offers the same resistance to the successful use of Sul- 
phur Water, which is evidently occasioned by the excess of 
the inflammatory diathesis, inasmuch as when the inflamma- 
tory disposition is abated, the water promptly produces its 
wonted good effects. {Mineral Springs of Virginia^) Of course, 
these waters, while they produce the same powerful alterative 
effect as mercury, cannot produce its injurious effects upon the 
system. The mere fact of water being strongly impregnated 
with sulphureted gas, is not, of itself, a sufficient evidence 
that it is a valuable remedial agent. 



H 



CHAPTER IX, 



MIDLAND MAGNETIC SPRING. 

LOCATION. ANALYSIS. THERAPEUTIC PROPERTIES. 

This well is in the town of Midland, a thriving village 
situated on the Tittabawassa River, twenty miles northwest 
from East Saginaw, to which place it is connected by the 
Flint and Pere Marquette railway. A very good bath-house 
is open. An analysis of this water shows it to contain in one 
imp. gallon : 

Sulphate of Lime gr. 4,4591 



" Potassa. 

" Soda 

Phosphate Alumina. 

Chloride Calcium 

" Magnesium 

" Sodium 

Silica 

Organic Matter 

Loss 



82,1930 
22,0690 
1,7287 
6,2194 
2,1948 
32,7025 
2,9631 
2,4692 
3,2120 



Total Salts 160,2108 

The principal ingredient in this water is sulphate of po- 
tassa, which is a mild aperient : the next largest ingredient 
is chloride of sodium or common salt ; also an aperient. The 
next largest qualitative element is sulphate of soda or glauber 
salts ; a purgative. This well is therefore classed among the 
purging saline waters. It is a valuable class of mineral waters, 
generally safe for popular use, and not contra-indicated by the 
tubercular diathesis. 

As there is an entire absence of carbonic acid gas, it will 
not do as a rule to bathe in the water at its natural tempera- 



6o 



Midland Magnetic Spring. 



ture, 47 F. Prof. Duffield, of Detroit, who analyzed this water, 
says : 

"These waters will be found beneficial in all cases where 
there is a lack of secretions in, or exhalation from, the mucous 
surface of the gastro intestinal canal, thereby establishing 
healthy secretions, especially in torpid conditions of the ali- 
mentary canal; also for the relief of plethora and chronic mala- 
dies dependant thereon, producing augmentation of the action 
of the absorbents, they will, in the hand of the practitioner of 
Medicine, become of value in some forms of dropsy. By their 
cathartic action they will have a tendency to relieve intesti- 
nal torpor, dependent on inactivity of the muscular fibres of 
the alimentary canal, and even in a partially paralyzed condi- 
tion of this organ. In Chorea, Hysteria and analogous mala- 
dies, they will prove a valuable aid to the direct medication 
of the family physician. 



CHAPTER X, 



EATON RAPIDS MAGNETIC SPRINGS. 

LOCATION. ANALYSIS OF WATERS. 

Eaton Rapids is a very pleasant town of twenty-five hun- 
dred inhabitans, situated on Grand River, twenty-five miles 
Northwest from Jackson. The Grand River Valley Branch of 
the Michigan Southern Rail Road, supplies the town with 
several daily trains. Seven Mineral Wells are found here, the 
deepest being nearly two hundred feet below the surface. 
Every well, I believe, is connected with a hotel, and each hotel 
has bathing facilities attached to it, so that invalids are not 
troubled, as in many places, getting to and from the bath- 
house. These wells all belong to the calcic class of waters. 
The Frost Well is the oldest and bears the following analysis 
by Prof. Duffield : 

Sulphate of Lime grs. 4. 64 



Carbonate of Lime 

" Magnesia. 
" Iron 

Chloride of Sodium 

Silicia 

Organic Matter and loss. 



46.24 
9. 1 1 
2.38 
9.21 

15-74 
90 



Total Mineral contents 1 imp. gallon 88.22 

Total Carbonic Acid 22,22 Cub. In. 

The analysis of the Shaw spring made by Prof. Kedzie of 
the State Agricultural College at Lansing is as follows : 

Cubic inches of Carbonic Acid Gas per gal. 15.97 

Solid residue left on evaporating 1 gal grs. 90.41; 

ANALYSIS OF RESIDUE. 

Sulphate of Lime grs. 48. 13 



62 



Eaton Rapids Magnetic Springs. 



Carbonate of Lime 

" Magnesia... 

Iron 

Soda 

" Potassa 

Chloride of Sodium 

Silicia Acid 

Organic matter and Loss. 



" 20.74 


" 3.84 


" 2.23 


" 11.57 


" 1.27 


90 


" 1.40 


90 



ANALYSIS. 

Prof. Kedzie also made the following - analysis of the Mosher 
spring : 

Sulphate of Lime grs. 45.16 

Carbonate of Lime 

' ' Magnesia 

Iron 

" Potassa 

« Soda 

Chloride Sodium 

Silicic Acid 

Organic matter and Loss 

Total solid contents in grains 

Cubic inches carbonic acid gas 

Dr. C. T. Jackson State Assayer of Massachusetts made 
the annexed analysis of the Sterling spring : 

Sulphate of Lime grs. 55.20 

" 12.59 

" 9-4o 



19-43 

4.52 

1. 00 

1. 15 

5.38 

90 

2.54 

85 

79-23 

I5-38 



Soda 

" Magnesia 
Carbonate of Soda ? 
Chloride of Sodium \ 
Carbonate of Iron 



5.21 
2.80 



Total solid contents 85.20 

Analysis of Bordine spring by Prof. Kedzie : 



Sulphate of Lime grs 

Bi Carbonate of Lime 



Potassa. 
Soda . . . 
Iron . . . 



57-5Q 
40.47 
8.40 
3.00 
5.05 
2.25 



Analysis. 63 

Chloride of Sodium " 1.50 

Silicia " 2.00 

Total grains in gallon " 120.17 

Cubic inches Carbonic Acid " 17.35 

Therefore these Eaton Rapid wells produce natural 
Lime waters. In three of them, Sulphuric acid holds the 
lime, Sulph. Calcic waters ; and in two, Carbonic Acid 
being in more active proportions, changes the element, Carb. 
Calcic waters. 

The proportion of Lime to the other ingredients may be 
easily presented to the eye by means of this table : 

Lime. Other solid contents. Proportion of Lime. 

Frost Well 50.88 38,34 4-7 

Shaw Well 68.87 21.58 7-9 nearly 

MosherWell 64.59 14.64 over 4-5 

Sterling Well 55.20 30.00 5-8 nearly 

Bordius Well 97.97 32.20 3-4 

As lime exists in such large quantities in these waters, it 
may not prove uninteresting to refer to the medical history of 
the official Aqua Calcis, not that there is identity of action but 
perhaps a similarity. 

It is one of the oldest remedies on the catalogue. Hip- 
pocrates used it in some skin diseases. Pliny used it to heal 
ulcers. Vogt declared that when taken internally it dimin- 
ished the secretions of the glandular organs, and that its 
habitual use was hurtful to the primae vise. 

A number of the German school attribute to it a resolv- 
ent action like that of iodine upon enlarged glands. Vogt 
also attributed to it a sedative influence upon the nervous sys- 
tem. Curative effects have been ascribed to it in chronic 
bronchitis with profuse expectoration, but the daily habit 
should be kept regular. It is alleged as being suitable in 
certain forms of chronic diarrhoea, when there is no ulceration, 
pain or fever. In tympanites and flatulent colic arising from 
habitual acidity it has been recommended. 

About 1740 lime water superceded the celebrated Joanna 
Stephens " lithontriptic," and the writings of Gadshell, Blane 
and Whytt attest the benefits of its use in calculus. Whytt 



64 Eaton Rapid Magnetic Springs. 

proved that its reputation was due to its local astringent ef- 
fect on the bladder, thus allaying inflammatory action and 
blunting the sensibility of that organ. Blane ascribes to it an 
additional effect of neutralizing the free acid of the urine and 
thus prevents the growth of calculus. Urate of lime is said 
to be more soluble than urate of ammonia or uric acid, (Chris- 
tison,) but the reverse of this is also stated. (Thudicum.) 

Some state that its use should be confined to chronic 
forms. Lime water has been recommended in purulent dis- 
charges from the urinary passages. Kissil advises it in diabetes 
insipidus, Whytt in chronic gout, and Clarus in Rachitis and 
osteomalacia. 

These are only a few of the diseases in which the officinal 
preparation has been used, and for centuries its reputation 
has been going up and down like a child's see-saw, probably 
it was incapable of performing all that was promised in its 
name. (Stilles Therapeutics?) If so much difficulty presents 
itself in fixing the proper place on the therapeutic scale 
for a well-known officinal medicated water that difficulty 
must be greatly increased in estimating the medicinal value 
of waters so complicated as those here presented. Perhaps 
this obvious difficulty was one reason that prevented the phy- 
sicians and chemists who analyzed the waters from recom- 
mending them as medicinal agents, the only exception being 
in favor of the Sterling spring by Dr. Jackson of Boston. My 
own opinion is favorable toward these w iters as remedial 
agents. Here is an interesting and profitable field of pro- 
fessional investigation which should be developed as rapidly 
as circumstances will allow. 







pi;,; '::^| 






ii 






^ilillliS K";^L : ^ ■' 1 






&, 




r ; Jij ||] :;.' ,: '^':: ';'■■ ■ ' : . : : v^i-v ■ '■ :; ^ : . ; 






^iBillifllMHttiffiHi^TOm 7 ■--'■-■^(iSlp SIlwBlfi 






1 l^l 


H 


1 






~:,£ ■■ - ■ : ■ V 




is 










1 1 1 1 i II iiii f'i '^^^s'»u^^% 


1 


Ill ! 






i^^^^WKl 


"W=W 


^^ SlilllllP jK 


lift if 






ij & I iii 1 j |ii" I 


JnOKSBwIi^liSsE I 1 - '•'MifflfWil 






ill 1 11 












1 


Pi' 


■IS 




1 




HBi^il 


|| 


JF^IISllHlii' iH 




i|!,: 




if ''l 


i U IIP 


V 




i 1 if ij 


i ;i; I; JH P .'.-I 'I IMIISi tt! 




§;■ ■ 




11 f 


IjllHi 


S'Hffil IIS 








1 1 p 










1 iii 1 iP 


pi ; iH 1 III 










1 


;! 1 Wi 






|:| 




1! " 1 


i!!l!i;:UH 


!:: : . ''■ .■;■■ 




ijf; 


■ III 


1 - 1 '1 


' H 




1 1 fij^^HB 








'"■■'. ' 




Is; 


„ ':, „ .;,; : '■■■ ; , 


■■■■■■ ■: . .. : , ' ,: 


pL ^IwawM 



CHAPTER XI. 



SPRING LAKE MAGNETIC SPRING. 

The village of Spring Lake is situated on the point of 
land formed by the junction of Grand River and a beautiful 
body of water, one of the numerous little Lakes already men- 
tioned known as Spring Lake. This lake is five miles long, 
half a mile wide ; about one hundred miles north of Chicago, 
and directly opposite Milwaukie. It is two miles from the 
town of Grand Haven with which it is connected by stages 
daily, and steamers frequently stop at the village. A very 
good bath-house is in operation, but as the well has no flow. 
the water has to be pumped up for all purposes. It was ana 
lyzed by Prof. Wheeler of Chicago with the following result : 

Temperature, 5 2° F. Specific Gravity, 1.00640 

Grains per gallon. 

£ f Potassium 4 2880 

S I Sodium 405 5330 

£ ] Calcium 113 4200 

o [ Magnesium 36 2000 

Soda o 0547 

Lime o 1308 

Ferri 1 0090 

Magnesium o 0040 

Manganese o 0534 

Bromide 2 1 700 

Sulphate of Soda 46 7000 

Silicia o 5030 

Alumina traces 

Ammonia 00158 

Organic Matter 18 2902 

Lithia traces 



Total Mineral contents 628 3719 

Spring Lake Well belongs to the class of salt brine, com- 
mon salt, or Chlor. Sudic waters, and is one of the best in the 
I 



66 



Spring Lake Magnetic Spring. 



State. It is the second strongest in the State of this class 
of waters ; that is, it contains the second largest proportion 
of its principal element. It contains Bromine, as all strong 
salt waters do, and a trace of Lithia and also of Alumina, but 
these ingredients are in too small a quantity to be of any de- 
cided benefit to the water. 

The Spring is visited principally by persons from Chicago, 
to whose enterprise the place owes its prosperity. 



CHAPTER XII 



LANSING MAGNETIC SPRING. 

LOCATION, ANALYSIS, &C. 

Lansing, the capital of the State, is a very pretty and 
flourishing young city of 6,000 inhabitants, situated at the 
confluence of Cedar and Grand Rivers. The Reform School 
of the State is located here, and two Colleges issue their di- 
plomas from this place. Lansing is easily reached from any 
direction by rail road, and the Mineral well is the best of the 
Chlor. Sodic group in the State. It is situated about a mile 
up the river, and a small steamer is constantly running to and 
from it. The well is fourteen hundred feet deep, and has a 
flow of fifteen hundred gallons per day, with a temperature 
constant at 53J F. 

The following analysis was made by Dr. Jennings, of De- 
troit, Sp. Gr. 1.0042. 

Chloride of Sodium 320.224 

Bi-Carb. Lime 107. 590 

" " Soda 112,081 

" '■ Magnesia 23.027 

" " Iron 1.882 * 

Sulphate of Potassa 14.940 

" " Soda 30.065 

Silica 3 . 966 

Solid contents 1 imp. gal 613.775 

Total Carbonic Acid 2 35-55° cu b. in. 

It will be observed, that more than half of the entire 
solid contents of this water is common salt, placing it in 
the class known as salt brine, or Chlor. Sodic waters. As is 
always the case with these waters, they hold in combination 
a large number of other elements, making them a valuable 
class of waters adapted to numerous therapeutic purposes. 



68 Lansing Magnetic Springs. 

THERAPEUTIC QUALITIES. 

These waters are tonic and stimulant with a disposition 
to pass off by the bowels when taken in large quantities. In 
more moderate doses the skin and kidneys gain increased ac- 
tivity. Of course if this is pushed too far they become deplet- 
ing, but their moderate use will strengthen and tone up rapid- 
ly and permanently broken down systems ; especially those 
due to impaired visceral derangements. One point however 
should be borne in mind always : that the whole group of saline 
waters have a constant tendency to provoke hemorrhoids. 

Dr. Jennings says : 

"The strongly alkaline nature of this water renders it 
especially adapted for the treatment of those diseases in which 
the use of alkalies is of therapeutic value. 

The large proportion of iron held in solution as a proto- 
salt gives it additional value as a chalybeate in cases of Chlor- 
osis. Anemia, and general ability. 

The depleting effects often following the long-continued 
use of alkalies are in this water entirely counteracted by its 
tonic qualities. 

The magnetic properties of this water (which are strongly 
developed) may contribute toward its efficacy in certain dis- 
eases ; this can only be determined by reliable empiric obser- 
vation. 

The following cases were reported by Dr. H. B. Shank to 
the State Medical Society, June, 1870. 

CHRONIC OPTHALMIA. 

Of this I have witnessed several complete cures. I find 
in my notes of cases, that of Henry S. Crane, aged 70 years, 
who had been afflicted with opthalmia eight years, and for the 
last seven years could not see to read ; could see to read after 
using the water for two weeks ; eyes now look well. 

Laurence Croy had been partially deaf in left ear, follow- 
ing measles, for the last twenty years ; was taken with inflam- 
mation of the eyes last February ; came home to treat his eyes 



Therapeutic Effects. 69 

with the water ; he recovered from his deafness, which latter 
cure was more than he hoped for or intended. Many other 
cases might be mentioned that have resulted equally favora- 
bly. 

Jacob Croy (father of L. Croy) was cured of chronic di- 
arrhoea contracted in the army ; he was unable to work for 
the past two years ; is now at work and calls himself well. 
He was a very pitiable specimen when he began the use of the 
water, being reduced to a mere walking skeleton. 

Mrs. Betsey Haworth came here about one week ago from 
Iosco, Livingston county, aged 55 ; has been an invalid from 
rheumatism twenty years ; all the joints of upper and lower 
limbs affected, and the most of them immovably fixed ; legs 
and feet much bloated. Saw her on Monday, May 30 ; she 
had been using the water about one week ; bloating entirely 
disappeared ; could flex some of the joints that, as she de- 
clared, she had " not been able to move in months." In this 
case the water acted energetically as a diuretic but not ca- 
thartic. I found her suffering from a paroxysm of palpitation 
or rather hurried action of the heart, which she had formerly 
been affected with, but had not troubled her for the last year. 
She told me "it was driving the disease to her heart, but was 
curing the joints." I found little or no valvular disease of the 
heart, and attributed its inordinate action to morbid nervous 
irritability. 

Dr. Bartholomew has kindly furnished me with a case of 
Bright's disease of the kidneys, recovered under the use of the 
Lansing mineral water. The following is from his notes of 
the case made after each examination : " Saw A. B. West, 
a g e 35' April 5th ; temperament sanguine ; specific gravity 
urine 1020, reaction alkaline, turbid, bloody, highly albumi- 
nous ; has lost eight or ten pounds in weight. Microscopic 
examination showed large amount of pus. Prescribed warm 
clothing, tinct. ferri chlo., also Lansing mineral water. April 
nth, urine of acid reaction, gravity same, no blood, still al_ 
bumen and pus, with waxy and granular casts ; continues to 
lose flesh ; pain on urinating. April 23d, urine acid, turbid, 



JO Lansing Magnetic Springs. 

albuminous, purulent, and bloody ; has had severe pain in re- 
gion of bladder, also on urinating ; large amount of mucus 
mixed with the urine. By order of Dr. Smily, left off the iron 
but continued the use of the mineral water. May 3d, symp- 
toms improving, but still some pus and albumen, reaction 
acid ; ordered to continue the use of the water. May 17th, 
urine of acid reaction, specific gravity 1020, with slight amount 
of sediment, and very little pus or mucus ; feels well ; has 
gained ten pounds in weight, and has resumed labor." 

A good bath-house is in close proximity to the well. And 
fine hotel accommodations can be obtained in the City. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



FRUIT PORT SULPHUR AND MAGNETIC WELL. 

LOCATION. ANALYSIS, &C. 

Fruit Port is a new town, the result of Chicago enterprise, 
situated at the head of Spring Lake. It occupies a command- 
ing position in the fruit belt of the State, and its proprietors 
promise that it shall soon become the center of the fruit trade 
on the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The company owns 
some 13,000 acres of land around the town, and the division, 
improvement, cultivation, and sale of this land, and the town 
lots in Fruit Port, was the first and main object of the com- 
pany when organized. But when Magnetic wells began to 
create so much excitement in the popular mind, of course 
Fruit Port had to have one, so an Artesian well was bored 
which furnishes the strongest salt brine Mineral water in the 
State. The following is an analysis by Prof. Wheeler, of 
Chicago : 

Temperature 48 F. Specific Gravity 1.007 18 

Grains per Gal. Grains per Gal. 

Bi-carb. Soda 6.5156 Chloride Sodiwn. . .464.0319 

" Lime 5.1 100 " Lime 111.1110 

" Iron 7-5°°° " Potassium. 0.4312 

" Magnesia 4-15" " Magnesium 46.807. 

" Manganese o. 1050 Bromide o. 7666 

Sulphate Soda 45.9960 

Total Bi-carbonates 23.3817 Silica and Silicates. 10.6050 

Alumina traces. 

Total Free Gas 7 cub. in. Total fixed Residue 679.7489 

A new and elegant hotel has been put up, and a bath- 
house is always open to the guests. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



BUTTERWORTH'S MAGNETIC SPRING. 

LOCATION, ANALYSIS, &C. 

This Spring is situated in Grand Rapids, a handsome, 
well-built, well-drained, lively little city, on the Detroit and 
Milwaukee Rail Road, near its Western terminus. Excellent 
hotels and private boarding houses. A plain but comfortable 
bath-house of 20 rooms has been put in successful operation. 

The water belongs to the sulphated class, and resembles 
that of "Bath," England, which has been very popular for a 
great many years. This water is useful, particularly where 
the secretions of the liver are torpid, and where saline Cathar- 
tics are indicated. This water is deserving more attention 
than it has received. 

The water of the Spring was analyzed by Prof. Duffield, 
with the following result : 

Specific Gravity 1004. 

Constituents in Imp. Gal. in grains. 

Sulphate of Lime 90.190 

Chloride of Potassium 11. 790 

" "Sodium 15.280 

" "Calcium 7-33Q 

" "Magnesium 50.240 

Bi-Carb. Soda 6.003 

" Lime 10.012 

" Magnesia 7.020 

" Iron 1. 170 

Silica 617 

Alumina 494 

Organic matter and loss .801 

Total Mineral Matter 200.947 

J 



CHAPTER XV 



OWOSSO CHALYBEATE SPRING. 

LOCATION, ANALYSIS &C. 

Owosso is situated on Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw 
Rail Road at the crossing of the Detroit and Milwaukee Rail 
Road. 

The Spring is very nicely situated, nearly a mile south of 
the business part of the town, surrounded by a grove and 
grounds which, if tastefully laid out and and cared for, would 
make a pleasant resort. 

Owosso has the best chalybeate water in the State ; it 
was analyzed with the following result : 

Bicarbonate Lime 25.667 

" Magnesia 19.094 

" Iron 15.920 

Chlorides Sordium and Potassium 2. 102 

Silicia and Alumina 617 

Total mineral in one gallon 63.400 

In all cases when iron tonics are wanted, and when there 
is no gastric irritation, or tendency to visceral congestion, this 
water will answer the purpose entirely. Such cases as those 
of pure debility, and anaemia, will probably find all they need 
in this water. Chloratic patients would undoubtedly be ben- 
efited. Indeed there are so many diseases and conditions of 
the system demanding iron mineral waters, and in which 
they are so decidedly beneficial, that this class of waters has 
been for a longtime exceedingly popular, both in the medical 
profession and with the laity. The proportions of iron in the 



j6 Owosso Chalybeate Spring. 

Owosso well is quite large, four times as great as that found 
in the Red Sweet Spring of Virginia, the most celebrated chaly- 
beate water in this country. The Carbonate of Magnesia is 
six times as much in the Owosso, as in the Virginia spring, 
but the latter spring contains a large quantity of Carbonic 
Acid gas, while Owosso has none, and consequently is com- 
paratively flat to the taste. 



CHAPTER XVI 



HUBBARDSTON MAGNETIC SPRING. 

LOCATION, ANALYSIS, &C. 

Hubbardston is situated in Ionia county, and is reached 
by the Detroit & Milwaukee Rail Road to Pewamo, thence by 
stage six miles and a half to the well. 

Hotel and private accommodations are convenient. 

This water was analyzed by Prof. P. H. Douglass, of the 
University of Michigan, and contains : 

Bicarbonate of Lime 23.812 

Bicarbonate of Magnesia 10.712 

Protoxide of Iron .154 

Silica 139 

Organic Matter, none. 

Total Mineral Matter in one gallon 34. 8 1 7 

Those who especially value the protoxide of iron as the 
peculiar form of chalybeate preparations best suited to the 
economy, will observe the presence of it in this water.* The 
small quantity of iron present does not necessarily indicate 
feebleness of action, for the water of the chalybeate spring at 
Harrodsburg, Kentucky, frequently induces a fullness and pain 
in the head from the iron element, while there is scarcely 0.50 
grains to the pint of water. 

A bath house is in connection with the well for the use 
of invalids and guests. 

*That the water holds iron in this shape in solution, is questionable. Many of our 
best chemists deny the possibility of it ; and all agree. I believe, that in laboratory prac - 
tice, protoxide of iron will not remain as such a moment in contact with water. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



GRAND LEDGE MAGNETIC SPRING. 

LOCATION, &C. 

Grand. Ledge is comparatively a new town of 1500 inhab- 
itants, situated on Grand River, in Eaton County, 12 miles 
west of Lansing, on the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan 
Rail Road. The name is taken from the immense ledges of 
rocks through which the river makes its course near the town. 
The surrounding country is rolling, well timbered and fertile, 
well supplied with water courses for manufacturing purposes. 
The town has two mineral wells, one of 600 and the other of 
200 feet depth. Two hotels, a small bath house and several 
boarding houses. No analysis has been made of these waters, 
but they are recommended for the same diseases that all 
other springs of the State are. 

Probably for the want of analysis, these springs have not 
attracted much attention yet. Until a spring has established 
a reputation, the spring goers must have an analysis to look 
at. After the reputation is made, of course they care nothing 
about the scientific details. Being situated close by both 
Lansing and Eaton Rapids, it is probable the water is like 
that of one or the other of these springs. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

LESLIE MAGNETIC SPRING. 

LOCATION, ANALYSIS, &C. 

Leslie is a smart little town of iooo population, situated 
on the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Rail Road, 15 miles 
from Jackson and 24 from the capitol of the State. 

Three wells have been bored, the only one in use bears 
the following analysis from Prof. Kedzie : 

Grains solid matter in imperial gallon 63.01 

Bicarbonate of Lime 30. 62 

Sulphate of Lime 7.04 

Bicarbonate of Magnesia 10. 53 

Bicarbonate of Iron 2.27 

Bicarbonate of Soda 5.27 

Bicarbonate of Potassa 4.55 

Silicia 2.08 

Organic matter 65 

63.01 

Free Carbonic Acid Gas in gallon, 13 }4 cubic inches. 

This is a good Carb. Calcic water, possessing iron and 
free carbonic acid. A good bath house is in operation, and 
a convenient hotel for visitors. The proportion of lime is 
smaller than in some other Calcic springs of the State, and 
the proportions of iron, soda, potassa and magnesia, are con- 
siderably larger. 



K 



CHAPTER XIX, 



FLINT'S MAGNETIC SPRINGS. 

LOCATION. 

These springs are situated in the town of Three Rivers, 
St. Joseph County, in the south-west portion of the State, at 
the confluence of Portage Rock and St. Joseph Rivers. 

Divisions of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Rail 
Road, and Michigan Central Rail Road pass through the 
town. The town is on high ground in one of the best agri- 
cultural portions of the State, and is within the fruit belt. 
The isothermals for January show this section to be from 2° 
to 5 warmer than any other portion of the State. 

No analysis of the water has been made. A very good 
bath-house has been erected. 

The town has something over three thousand population, 
and visitors will find hotels convenient, churches, schools and 
newspapers. 



CHAPTER XX 



THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF MINERAL SPRING 

WATERS. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 

It is possibly expected, it is certainly appropriate, that 
something more definite should be stated in regard to the 
special therapeutic effects of the mineral waters of Michigan, 
the diseases to which they are adapted, and the best manner 
of using them both internally and as a bath. 

In the study of the Hydro-mineral treatment as a branch 
of scientific Hydrology, nothing has been so entirely un- 
satisfactory in practice as the "general indications," unless 
indeed it be the "general rules," which are forever set to a 
formula by almost every one of the profession who has at- 
tempted to write a line on mineral spring waters. A tho- 
rough practical investigation will convince any one that the 
forms set by authors under the quoted headings, convey no 
adequate idea of the diseases to be treated, much less any 
satisfactory plan of treatment. By carefully noting the errors 
of others, and his own success, he may imagine it is an easy 
matter to formulate his own experience into a sure and suffi- 
cient guide for others. On the attempt to perform the task, he 
will find it a never ending succession of changes of form, un- 
satisfactory when finished and incomplete as a guide. After 
much deliberation, which the importance of the subject really 
demands, it has seemed to me the best plan is to follow in the 
wake of Dr. James Currie F. R. S. who wrote the most scien- 
tific work ever given the profession on the use of common 
water in disease, and gives names, dates, places, symptoms, 
diagnosis, the detailed treatment of each case, and the result. 



86 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

In this way the whole matter is placed before the reader and 
is subject to his analysis. 

The cases here given are all taken from my case book, and 
the notes were carefully made at the time of treatment 
and on the spot. 

Although these cases were treated at the St. Louis Mag- 
netic spring, yet the principles engaged apply as well to all 
other springs, still leaving each its special province. It is not 
intended to show the virtues of any one water, but to eluci- 
date the remedial benefits of all good mineral spring waters 
in the State, and my own views regarding the use of those 
waters in particular diseases. 

Those diseases most commonly met with at the mineral 
springs of the State will be noticed at greatest length. 

I am so well pleased with the external application of 
mineral waters in the shape of baths, that with my present 
experience I shall never advise a patient of mine to visit any 
mineral spring that has not a comfortable and well arranged 
bath-house in connection with it. For my own convenience 
I shall use the numbers attached to the cases in the books 
from which they are taken. 

IN RHEUMATISM. 

The basis of the treatment of Rheumatism originally in- 
stituted by Dr. Broklesby (1764) was that by alkalies. Other 
remedies were used mainly as adjuvants, including bat/is, when 
the skin did not act freely. The same general plan of treat- 
ment is adopted to-day with singular unanimity by the Medi- 
cal profession all over the world, while such names as Garrod, 
Tanner, Chambers, Furneral, Stevens, Parkes, Basham, Good- 
fellow and others, appear in the literature of this disease as 
warm advocates of this general plan. 

Aside from daily clinical experience, which is the court of 
final decision in such matters, the alkaline and saline treat- 
ment seems to be the most rational, for it has now been abund- 
antly proven that alkalies and salts aid in the disintegration 
and increase the elimination of the morbific material in the 
blood, whatever it may be. We know that the blood in the 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 87 

Rheumatic diathesis is deficient in its alkaline and saline 
quantities, and that there is a liability to fibrinous exudation. 
We also know that the action of alkalies and salts are to in- 
crease the alkalinity of the blood, by bringing up to the nor- 
mal standard those essential ingredients, and thus control 
the tendency to fibrinous deposition. The particular alkalies 
used in treatment on the principle of neutralization, have been 
almost always the Carbonates and Bi-carbonates, Sulphates 
and Chlorides of Soda or Potassa, and Magnesia, taken inter- 
nally in watery solution, and externally as a topical application. 

All Mineral Spring waters therefore, that contain a suffi- 
cient quantity of alkaline or saline ingredients, to increase by 
their action the secretions of the kidneys, skin, and alimentary 
canal, may be expected to be more or less serviceable in the 
treatment of Rheumatism, particularly in its chronic varieties, 
while the less stimulating Springs will be useful in the sub- 
acute forms. 

Mineral Spring waters have always been interdicted, by 
authors, in the treatment of sub-acute Rheumatism, but it 
seems to have been so on purely theoretical grounds. All 
Mineral Spring waters are stimulant, and it was on this fact 
that they were supposed to be contra-indicated in acute and 
and sub-acute diseases. But a great deal of the stimulation 
of these Springs can be easily removed by letting the water 
stand and the gases escape, on which, frequently, most of the 
stimulation depends. The most persistently stimulant are the 
Chlor. Sodic and Sulphur waters. Other Springs, from the 
absence of nearly all stimulating solid ingredients, are scarcely 
deserving the name of being stimulant at all, after the gases 
have escaped. Of one hundred cases of Rheumatism coming 
either directly or indirectly under my notice during the last 
summer, there were only a few who failed to receive a reasona- 
ble degree of benefit. I am conscious of the power of other in- 
fluential causes in effecting this result at all Mineral Springs, in 
other diseases as well as the one in hand, but it requires more 
hardihood than most minds — professional minds at any rate — 
possess, to ascribe to those influences the entire or principal 



88 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

effects produced. I saw no cases of Rheumatism during its 
period of greatest acuticity ; probably from the fact that at 
that stage it is impossible for patients to travel, even if they 
desired to do so. But the following case certainly verges 
close to it, if it may not be included within that pale : 

Case XXVI. " C. H. P. A young man of 30 years of 
age, was taken on 16th February with acute rheumatism which 
involved arms, hands, legs, and feet ; for three weeks he could 
scarcely be moved ; he was brought to the Springs thirty-two 
miles during the 4th week. He had fallen off 45 lbs. in flesh ; 
his legs were so swollen that his pants had to be ripped at the 
seam ; his pains at night still kept him from sleep." 

This person used a hot bath every day at 3 P. M., and 
drank two pints of the cold water during the twenty-four 
hours. On the 4th day he could walk across the room, and 
in one month he resumed his business, cured. 

All cases however do not yield so promptly, and the ne- 
cessity of persistence in the use of the remedy is shown in the 
next patient : 

Case CCXL. "A railroad contractor of Wisconsin, aged 
46, weight 170, 5 ft. j\ in., comes to the Springs on the 28th 
day of May with rheumatism affecting all his limbs, but more 
especially his arms and shoulders, so that he cannot use them 
for any purpose, not even dressing or undressing himself; his 
shirts have to be sewed on and ripped off; bowels constipated; 
does not sleep well. His shoulder joints actually seem 
anchylosed, and are exceedingly painful when an attempt is 
made to get them more than a few inches from his body." 

This gentleman left for home on August the 7th, and 
except a little stiffness still in the shoulder joints, had perfect 
motion and entire freedom from pain in every joint of his body. 
He has no difficulty in putting his hands over his head, though 
he cannot do so as quickly as he used to do. The water taken 
cold did not relieve his constipation, but by resorting to three 
glasses of hot water daily he had no further trouble of the 
kind. For the first two weeks, this rheumatic was really worse 
than when he came, and at the end of a month he was no bet- 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 89 

ter, but he determined to " stout it out," and now he has the 
benefit of it, with which he is greatly delighted. His bath 
was 94 , 10 min. time, 8J p. m. 

Constipation is frequently a mos*t annoying accompani- 
ment of chronic rheumatism, and the relief of this trouble 
alone is a new lease of life even if the joint difficulty is not 
directly benefitted. 

Case CCXXXV. "A gentleman of sixty years of age 
has been helpless almost, because of rheumatism, for ten years, 
affecting all of his limbs, his constipation is very obstinate, 
joints of hands and feet are sore, and enlarged by deposits. 
Hot bath daily; water ad libitum — not to exceed two pints in 
24 hours." 

This gentlemen was at the springs two months. I 
could see but little benefit to his rheumatism, but his consti- 
pation was entirely relieved. 

Two cases of sub-acute rheumatism were presented, mark- 
ed with the singularity of being worse in warm weather, and 
the warmer the weather the worse they became. The case 
detailed is that of a young lady of Washington City, the 
daughter of a distinguished physician, now deceased. The 
other case was a young woman from the vicinity of Toledo. 
The cases are so identical that a description of one, is so of 
the other, except that the abatement of the disease in winter 
was not quite so great. 

Case CCXXXVI. Has had rheumatism three years. Without 
any family tendency. Most all parts of the body have been 
subjected to it during that time. Manifested by no very se- 
vere pain or soreness, and swelling has only occurred at the 
ankles, tarsal, wrist and carpal joints; the complaint is not 
pain and soreness so much as weakness and stiffness, so that 
she has not the power in them necessary for the performance 
of their functions. She has not been able to walk down stairs 
for three months ; in fact much walking on level surface soon 
makes her joints give out. The affected joints are in a con- 
stant state of perspiration. The disease gradually grows 
worse with the approach of warm weather, and cold weather 



90 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

causes its gradual abatement. In all other respects her gen- 
eral health is excellent. The enlarged joints seem to be a 
thickening of tissue rather than deposition of chalky matter." 
Besides the general bath and drinking, the hot and cold 
douches were used daily to the joints. The hot douche was 
found to answer best, I think. In one case I passed a current 
of electricity from 5 to 10 smee cells — according to the con- 
dition of the cells — through the joints every 2d day, but its 
benefit was questionable. However, one case improved by 
staying two months, and the other left too soon for me to 
judge of what might have been. These patients previously 
had been under skillful treatment, with little or no benefit. 
This type of the disease seems to be peculiarly obstinate to 
all remedies; fortunately it is rarely met with. 

Case LXIV. " G. H. P., a portly man from Ohio has had 
chronic rheumatism for several years. Within a year it has 
become more active, so that he has been unable to do any 
work, or walk but little. If he takes a walk in the morning 
the muscles of his limbs soon get a "twisting" pain, and the 
soreness of his joints becomes more severe. His feet trouble him 
more than other portions of the body ; frequently he cannot 
put on his boots for a week at a time. His joints besides be- 
ing very sore, on motion are quite stiff, so that if he chooses 
to bear the pain, he finds that his movements are quite limit- 
ed. His general condition and habits are good. 

This person was at the springs four weeks, and some 
time before he left he could walk considerable distances with 
comfort ; to use his own expression he "had not been as lim- 
ber for twenty years." But there was still some little soreness 
in some of his joints. He should have stayed longer while he 
was about it and been entirely relieved as the next man did. 

Case LIX. "A strongly built robust German of 30 years, 
from the southern part of Michigan is of a decided rheumatic 
diathesis. He has never been down in bed but once, twelve 
months since, which lasted him four weeks ; yet every few 
weeks for several years some joint will pain him so that he 
will have to quit his business for three or four days, and for a 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 91 

year this frequency has increased. His joints do not swell, 
but he notices that when one is painful it is also cold to the 
touch. He suffers greatly from constipation. (June 8.) 

On October 1st this man was still at the spring, fighting 
it out. He seems to have been victorious, for his rheumatism 
has not troubled him for three months, but he "wants to get 
it out of his system," so he has found work to do near by. 

Case LX. This is a dyspeptic and will be recalled after a 
while. "With all his other troubles he has rheumatism, involv- 
ing his hips, feet, and back, so that he can scarcely move 
about. His feet are so sore and swollen that he can wear 
nothing on them but soft carpet slippers, while his hips and 
back pain him with every step which is neither steady nor 
sure." He was entirely relieved of his rheumatism before he 
left the springs. 

Case CCXXIII. " W. I. L. New York. A tall spare gen- 
tlemen of forty years. Has had chronic rheumatism for five 
years. The effect of it is seen in his contracted limbs and 
crooked contour. He cannot comb his hair nor dress him- 
self. His knees are very much swollen, very painful, and 
quite sore to the touch. He does not sleep well, sometimes 
not at all, from pain. His bowels are constipated and appe- 
tite poor." (May 9th.) 

This gentleman left for his home on 25th of July. He 
was able then to stand nearly erect, and could walk with 
ease and without pain wherever he chose to go. His appe- 
tite was good and his daily habits regular. He has been 
sleeping well for some time, and dressing himself every morn- 
ing. The swelling, pain, and soreness, have entirely left his 
joints. He took a warm bath every day,and drank two pints 
of water per diem, in small doses. For the first month, I find 
by the note, he got worse "right strait along;" at the end 
of that time he began to inprove, and has gained splendidly. 
I remember the case as being one of the worst, and most 
intractable during the month of June, while rheumatics gen- 
erally were getting well. The Hot douche to his joints, 



92 Therape?itic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

though no{ mentioned in the notes, had much to do in reliev- 
ing the local troubles. 

Case LXXVII. " This is a case of gonorrhceal rheumatism. 
The patient has had gonorrhoea four times in the past few 
years, and three times it was followed by severe attacks of 
rheumatism. With one of these attacks he is here now. The 
knees, ankles, feet, and right arm joints are so much affected 
that it is with difficulty that he can move. In this attack he 
has lost sixty pounds of flesh." (June 30.) 

By means of general bath at 94 , followed by hot douches 
to joints, and drinking three pints daily of water, he gained 
very rapidly for three weeks, the gonorrhoea then returned, 
which being checked, his rheumatism returned again, though 
not so violently as when he first came. It was finally subdued 
however, and he went home a better if not a wiser man. 

IN THE DYSPEPSIAS. 

Mineral Springs have generally gained more reputation 
from the cures and improvements made in patients suffering 
from some of the various forms of Dyspepsia than from any 
other disease. This is due in a great measure to the fact that 
in nearly all diseases of long standing or much severity, the 
digestion is sure to become more or less impaired. This im- 
pairment re-acts upon the original disease, and the disease in- 
creases the breach in the digestive functions, and both get 
worse. 

Mineral waters, by building up the digestive power, giv- 
ing tone and vigor to the general system, thus exerts a power- 
ful, indirect, beneficial effect upon the original disease, and the 
patient is greatly improved. Such is the history of the cele- 
brated Vichey waters of France, and of Ems, in Germany ; 
and my experience in Michigan is, on this point, very satisfac- 
tory. 

Where the alkaline treatment, with tonics is indicated, 
either in Dyspepsia or any other disease, .there is no method 
of instituting that treatment which can compare with that of 
Alkaline Mineral Springs, for promptness, efficiency and last- 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 93 

ing results. I am sure this statement will be borne out by all 
Medical men who have given the matter any attention. 

By the alkaline treatment — in Dyspepsia particularly-I do 
not mean what is generally understood as being the only re- 
sult, a mere palliation by the neutralization of supposed super- 
abundant or abnormal acids, but a building up of strong 
stomachal tissue and increased healthy gastric juice and nor- 
mal peptic abilities of the stomach, showing an alterative or 
restorative action — a restored life. 

While I do not see that the water of Vichey possesses 
any one advantage over the Alkaline waters of Michigan in 
its remedial qualities, it is quite apparent that the latter have 
one great advantage in the possession of iron, for most Dys- 
peptics become anaemic and thin of flesh, and it is often diffi- 
cult to get the ordinary Pharmaceutical preparations of iron 
to act beneficially in such cases, and another advantage is, the 
presence of free carbonic acid. Where there is torpidity of the 
intestinal secretions, some of the saline waters should be ad- 
vised, and if the biliary secretions especially are torpid, the 
Sulphur waters are still better adapted. In some cases where 
the Dyspepsia is a secondary result of anemia, those saline 
waters Chlor. Sodic containing iron, are particularly service- 
able, because the impoverished secretions are more rapidly re- 
stored. 

Case XXVII. "J. L. K., aged 52. 160 lbs. 5 feet 10 in. 
May 23d, 1871. A very energetic and prosperous business 
man. Fifteen months ago was taken with Diarrhoea, which, 
after lasting some weeks, produced dizziness in head and 
pains in right side, covering the region of liver, which gradu- 
ally extended to left side and under right shoulder-blade ; a 
feeling of discomfort and weight followed two or three hours 
after eating, and is by far the most constant and disagreeable 
of his discomforts. He has had to abandon all business, and 
during his sickness has fallen off 54 pounds while under a va- 
riety of pathic treatments ; has spent several months at the 
sea shore and at several watering places. He drinks plenty 
of cold water, eats well of a general diet, bowels irregular, 



94 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

troublesome Diarrhceal discharges, and carries a white tongue ." 
This patient suffers from slow digestion, which is somewhat 
painful. The food not digesting within the proper time, be- 
comes weight to him, and the digestion not being perfect, 
causes the loose alvine discharges. As his digestion is im- 
proved in rapidity all his discomforts will fade away. .He is 
advised to drink hot Magnetic water, in small glasses several 
times during the day. Full bath 8o°, 3 minutes, to be followed 
by a short shower, after the first meal, some hours. Diet to 
be of heated milk and toast, with plain roasted or boiled meat 
at dinner ; vegetables were to be added from time to time as 
he improved. Went home July 15 quite well. This patient 
improved very rapidly ; his evacuations became firmer, his 
sleep became quiet and undisturbed, he gained strength and 
spirits and flesh. 

The hot water was prescribed because it more promptly 
facilitates the processes of digestion and nutrition. He had 
been drinking two or three pints of cold water every day while 
at the spring, and it required too much of the energies of his 
debilitated stomach to heat it up to the temperature where it 
could be of service to him. By giving it to him hot, the 
powers of the stomach were harbored and increased, while at 
the same time his stomach was given no more work to do, 
than it could do well. He began with a diet that could be 
readily digested and assimilated, and it was substantially in- 
creased from day to day. The bath was given so as to be a 
good general tonic. 

In this sort of cases I have found heated milk a most ex- 
cellent adjuvant in the way of diet. If given cold it would 
have the same objection as cold water, and if given after it is 
boiled and the albumen thereby coagulated, it would be still 
more objectionable. The cause of this dispepsia was too much 
brain work; the nerve forces proper for digestion were drawn 
off at a time when rapid eating made it necessary that they 
should be on guard. The disease being once established, it 
did not leave on the removal of the cause, it was too deeply 
rooted. These sort of cases are constantly being presented 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 95 

by brain workers. I find in the notes of the case, that I gave 
him a " good start" toward recovery by a small pill of S. quin. 
et Stych. ter. in die. 

The next case illustrates a common form of dyspepsia in 
men who do business and eat with a " rush," and also the po- 
tency of the remedy used. 

Case . " A hearty, robust, athletic man of 27 

years, and 170 pounds weight; says that if not before he has 
finished his meal, very soon afterward, his stomach begins to 
" burn," and it lasts him from two to four hours ; he says the 
absolute amount of pain is not so great, but the peculiar 
character of it, the location and the time of its occurence — 
when he is most busily engaged — all conspire to nearly upset 
his mind, sometimes. He has " no peace;" when his stomach 
is empty he is as ravenous as a wolf, he eats, to have the 
burning pain again. When the burning is long continued he 
can eructate a little acid material and then gets relief. This 
state of things during the day makes him nervous by bed-time, 
so that he does not get composed to-sleep till past midnight. 
The only kind of meat that he can eat is a little rare beef- 
steak. Vegetables of nearly all kinds " bloat " him. Parsnips 
however agree with him. He notices that the less water he 
drinks the better off he is, as an ounce or two will cause the 
the burning. A broad stripe of white fur runs down his 
tongue, pulse 70, good in every respect. Bowels regular." 

Here is a very active out-door business man, who has 
been in the habit of eating a hearty meal in no longer than 
five minutes time. This is the legitimate result of it. His food 
is digested well as shown by his ruddy complexion and weight, 
(for he continues to eat in spite of the burning,) and good con- 
dition of his evacuations. The digestion is also performed 
within the time usually allotted to that function, but the act 
is accompanied by pain, from the very commencement, of a 
burning character. This is from a hypersethetic condition of 
the mucous membrane of his stomach produced by throwing 
food into it not properly prepared by the masticators, and 
buccal secretions. The proper treatment consists in giving 



96 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

some local anaethetic : one of the best of these is carbonic 
acid gas. The St. Louis water containing a good quantity of 
this, is a remedy near at hand, and he discovered the first day 
that he could drink five times as much of it as he could of 
common water without any burning pain after it. His cure 
of course was only a question of time. Sometimes the nerv- 
ousness produced by some of these forms of dyspepsia is the 
most troublesome and alarming symptoms to be combated, 
as in the following. 

Case LXX. A prominent Ohio lawyer, of fine social 
attainments, has been suffering for some years with dyspepsia, 
produced by tobacco smoking, which became necessary to him 
as a stimulant, so that fifteen to twenty-five cigars a day were 
used. In the midst of business he found that this large num- 
ber did not keep him up, so he took a little whiskey during the 
day, and to use his own language, " Tobacco and whiskey 
would kill the devil, much more a lawyer." His present condi- 
tion is : "An hour after eating, a terrible feeling of oppression 
in the gastric region sets in which lasts two or three or four 
hours ; occasional eructation of food, but generally of wind 
only. He is exceedingly nervous, from an hour after his first 
meal he cannot keep quiet; he must walk, walk, walk, and 
only rest when nature is exhausted. He cannot stay in the 
house, cannot read, cannot attend to business ; he must be 
moving. There is no sleep for him, he tosses about in bed for 
hours; perhaps toward morning gets one, two, or three hours 
sleep ; perhaps he gets none at all. The oppression and 
weight pass off, but the restless, turbulent nerves are never 
quiet. His bowels are regular, though he notices every few 
weeks a number of loose discharges." 

I cut this gentleman's diet down at one blow to the level 
of heated milk and toast, and directed that it be raised grad- 
ually — that is, add a new element in small quantities every 
day ; advised him to drink his magnetic water heated also, 
several times a day in small quantities. He is to take a full 
bath at 8 p. m., water 90 , time, 10 minutes, and shower bath 
before breakfast. This gentleman was in the habit of taking 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 97 

a cold towel bath in his room every morning upon rising, and 
I have found that persons who have acquired this habit do not 
get along nearly so well without it. My shower bath was in- 
tended only as an improvement on his own method. This 
gentleman's improvement was rapid and complete. In two 
weeks he was a new man, could sleep well, write his own cor- 
respondence, appetite good and general health well estab- 
lished. In a little while however, by a process of gorging, he 
produced an attack of acute indigestion, from which he scarce- 
ly recovered while at the Springs. 

Case LX. J. M. B., the rheumatic I promised to recall, 
aged 55, weight 170, of strong athletic frame. " Has been a 
dyspeptic lor several years; in his case the dyspepsia is mani- 
fested by the feeling of weight in the stomach coming on 
sometime after eating. He suffers very much from constipa- 
tion, and within the past few months has become very 
nervous; has become timid and easily frightened by the most 
trifling circumstances ; for instance, if he is out riding with a 
horse and driver, both of which he knows to be safe, the mo- 
ment the horse goes faster than a walk he becomes frightened 
and wants to escape. His sleep is broken and disturbed by a 
thousand unpleasant sights and sensations — as that of one 
falling from a great height." 

This patient was entirely cured without any change from 
his usual diet except the omission of coffee. He took a full 
bath at yo° to 8o° every day, and drank from one to two 
pints of water in small doses during the twenty-four hours. 
Cold water in small quantity acts as a shower bath to the 
stomach in such cases, invigorating its normal actions, 
whereas in large quantities it seems to drown out temporarily 
functional activity. 

Case XLIX. "An old rheumatic complains of great dry- 
ness of his mouth and throat, which gives him an inordinate 
thirst ; he drinks from half, to a gallon of water during the 
day, still his mouth is dry, and when he talks to me I notice 
the sticky smack his mouth gives. He is troubled with flatu- 
M 



98 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

lency and two or three hours after eating, his eructations are 
very sour and burn his throat. He thinks it very strange 
that the alkaline water of St. Louis springs don't cure his 
'acid stomach.' " 

This character of dyspepsia is not so commonly met with, 
at least out of sixty-five cases I only find notes of three, and 
these are all met with in persons who had other diseases pri- 
marily. Therefore, I think this want of salivary secretion 
is due to general depravity of the ecomomy. The want of 
the proper secretions being poured into the mouth, however, 
has produced a whole train of evils. For when he eats vege- 
tables, the starch — or a large portion of it — is undigested, 
both from the want of the proper secretions being properly 
mixed with them in the mouth, and from the inundations that 
carry them to the stomach and the necessary lowering of 
gastric vitality by such large quantities of water at all other 
times, so that chemical action takes the place of vital action, 
and an excess of acid and gas is formed in the stomach. The 
treatment consisted, in a remodeling of his bill of fare, 
leaving off peas, beans and potatoes, and cold drinks at meals; 
advising fresh meats, fish, &c; with milk tea, to drink hot 
mineral water alternately during the day, with small qantities 
of cold water, and warm bath every morning. Of his dyspep- 
sia he gradually improved, in spite of occasional back-sets 
from over-eating. 

Case CCXVIII. "An active, young, western merchant, for 
sometime has been subject to attacks, somewhat frequent, of 
acute indigestion, which he attributes mainly to his having 
constantly a more chronic form, in spite of forty quack medi- 
cines he has tried. He has pain in the epigastrium with puffi- 
ness and swollen tympanitic abdomen. He complains that 
this wind troubles him constantly — if it remains, by the dis- 
tention and borborygmus — if it passes off the annoyance is still 
greater. For some time he has been using whisky and water 
to relieve the gastric pains, but I fear the proportions were not 
very favorable ; appetite good, eats a liberal mixed diet, 






Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 99 

sleeps well, and is as strong - as usual. About once a month 
has an attack of diarrhoea, which passes off in a day." 

By drinking largely of water without whisky, a shower 
bath every morning, and the external application of hot water 
to gastric region for an hour after each meal, and a notable 
reduction of his vegetable diet, he was cured and returned 
home at the end of a month. Spirituous liquors are about 
the worst thing for flatulence ; vegetables are bad. When 
the persons are not too old, nor too much debilitated, and 
it is not contra-indicated for other reasons, nothing recon- 
structs them sooner than well timed shower baths of these 
waters, taken cold, as we shall have abundant proof after 
awhile. 

Case CCXIV. "A Southern lady of rather luxurious 
habits, after each meal has pain in epigastrium, which increas- 
es with the meals taken during the day, with vomiting after 
the last one. There is some tenderness on pressure over 
painful region, and some puffmess. The pain sets in as soon 
as the meal is finished, and if she eats no supper, she escapes 
the vomiting and preceding nausea of a few minutes duration. 
A larger dinner than usual, has occasionally produced vomit- 
ing, and the best remedy she has ever tried is twenty minums 
of chloroform swallowed before eating ; she is also troubled 
with palpitation of the heart frequently. Twenty years, 5 feet 5 
inches, 101 pounds; twenty five pounds less than usual weight." 

Taking my cue from the effects of chloroform as a local 
anaesthetic, I directed small doses of St. Louis water, cold, 
every second hour during the day, and a reversal of her meal 
times, that is, to leave off eating breakfast instead of supper, 
so that the anesthetic effect of the carbonic element might 
be well established by the time her first meal was taken ; she 
was to take a small cup of beef tea only, in the morning, and a 
warm bath. She had no vomiting after this time, and her 
pain gradually wore away, while she gained one pound per 
day, until her lost weight was regained. Her heart palpita- 
tions ceased as soon as that organ was supplied with good 



ioo Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

rich blood. This case will be called again under another 
score. 

The following case may be useful to others : 
Case CCXXXVII. " A tall, spare gentleman of fifty 
years, has been troubled for a year with tightness, constric- 
tion, and distress in the stomach after each meal, whether 
the meal be light or heavy. He has been a sufferer from ob- 
stinate constipation all this time. On arriving at the Springs, 
he was surprised to find that he could drink so much of the 
water without its causing pain at the stomach, so he poured it 
in without counting the glasses. I was called to his bedside 
the next afternoon, where he had been brought by what was 
emphatically a watery diarrhoea. I do not know how much 
went into him, but from the quantity that came from him, one 
could imagine that the soldiers of Iran and Azerbijan had 
turned the channel of the Euphrates through him. He was 
on his feet, however, in a few days, and by the proper use of 
the water, was entirely cured of his dyspepsia and constipa- 
tion." 

IN PARALYSIS. 

This is the disease which usually takes invalids to Michi- 
gan, for the benefit of the reputed Magnetic qualities of the 
water. Those who choose to deny the presence of that qual- 
ity, will have no difficulty in finding other potent influences 
by which the paralysed are bettered. A few cases out of six- 
ty-nine, that came under my immediate notice last year, will 
be detailed in elucidation of the general plan of treatment 
and its effects. 

Case LXVI. "A lady from Indiana, aged sixty, weight 
one hundred and twenty, of good plump figure, had two 
slight strokes of hemiplegia, in February last, which left her 
right side nearly useless. By assistance, she can walk across 
the room, her left eye droops, her tongue is still somewhat 
affected, and the toes of the right side cannot be moved by 
voluntary effort, (June 18th.) " 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 101 

In one month, this lady could walk a mile, without diffi- 
culty or assistance ; the eyelid no longer drooped ; the lost 
motion of the toes had been restored, and there was only a 
little numbness remaining. She took a full bath at 90 , 5 min. 
every morning, followed by a strong shower of cold water. 
This case presented the advantage of being of recent date, 
which cannot be said of the next one. 

Case LVII. " A young man aged twenty-nine, weighing 
135 pounds, of dark complexion, has been paralyzed on the 
right side since he was eighteen months old, caused by scar- 
let fever. The fingers of right hand are drawn in the palm 
of his hand ; the forearm is flexed on arm, so that he cannot 
get his hand more than 12 inches from the shoulder. The 
tendons under his knee are so contracted that his leg is 
very much crooked, and he walked on the toes of that side, 
with a long heel to his shoe. Hot bath, to be followed by 
cold shower, and kneading of the effected limbs." 

This young man so far recovered, as to nearly straighten 
his arm and fingers. The long heel to his shoe was not 
needed, for he could put his foot flat on the ground when he 
walked, he could open his hand rapidly, but it closed slowly, 
and without much strength. He was at the Springs three 
months. 

Case XL. " An old gentleman — sixty years of age, has 
been paralysed on right side eight years, his leg has almost 
recovered, but his right arm is stiff, contracted and nearly 
useless. His voice is so nea»r gone, and his articulation so 
poor, that it is with the greatest difficulty I can understand 
anything he says, consequently he gets off by answering the 
leading questions. Full bath 90 every day, and hot douche 
to arm morning and evening, with kneading." (May 10th.) 

At the end of a month this patient came to bid me good 
bye ; his voice and articulation had improved so much, that 
any one could understand him quite readily. The arm was 
as " limber as it ever was " and nothing troubled him but the 
sensation of " worms in the flesh" of his arm, and a shortness of 
funds which took him home." 



102 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

Case LXXX. " A gentleman from Mississippi, 66 years 
of age, of light build, weighing not more than 140 pounds, 
had a paraplegia come on him with the suddenness of the 
lightning flash, five years ago. He has had neither before 
nor since any head or spinal symptoms to account for such 
a calamity, but his kidneys, he says, were not right for sev- 
eral years before this, and are worse since. Urine now scanty, 
high colored, and scalds as it passes away — which it does fre- 
quently though voluntarily. His lower limbs have dwindled 
into emphatically, " nothing but skin and bones " the muscles 
are the flimsiest ribbons, lying loosely between the two. By 
the greatest effort, he can get up a feeble, voluntary contrac- 
tion of one or two of them in each limb. He cannot sit alone 
except by separating his feet, bringing his knees together, 
and resting his hands on them, unless he is in a chair, then 
the chair-back keeps him up, but he has not the power to take 
his body from the chairback, except by pulling some object in 
front of him. His legs are as cold as if his heart had ceas- 
ed to beat before he left his beautiful State, and the skin 
so dry that it rattles beneath the hand. There is more motion 
in the right limb than in the left. In some of the muscles of 
each limb, I could get no reaction with less than sixty smee 
cells. Bowels constipated, appetite poor. 

He is directed to have his lower limbs immersed in hot 
water, with hot douche to spine every morning. This water 
is then to be cooled down to 92 °, in which he will take a full 
bath for a few minutes. Then he is to be thoroughly rubbed, 
and his limbs well kneaded. On every second afternoon he 
will have galvanic electricity applied to each separate muscle 
of his limbs. Hot pediluvia at bedtime; to drink two pints St. 
Louis water per diem. This is any thing but a propitious case. 

The object of the hot water was to fill his legs with blood 
once more, so that some degree of tissue repair might be set 
up again, and a better temperature be preserved in those 
parts. The hot douche has the same effect by arousing to 
action the spinal cord and nerves. I have frequently noticed 
patient's feet and limbs grow warm under the influence of a 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 103 

a full and strong flow of hot water upon the back. Method- 
ical friction to the skin, and kneading- the lifeless muscles 
thoroughly, is one of the most important elements in the 
treatment of paralysis. It not only maintains the necessary 
local circulation of blood, and the temperature, but it gives 
exercise to the paralyzed muscles, and this is a sine qui non 
in the treatment of the disease. 

This gentleman had taken good remedies for his disease, 
at home, but the muscles of his limbs had received little ex- 
ercise, and they withered away to the merest rudiments. 

A clergyman of the Episcopal Church, of Connecticut, 
who is himself a paralytic, and a very intelligent gentleman 
and close observer, told me in consultation that he had given 
several remedies a thorough trial under the advice of skillful 
physicians, but that he gained on his disease only when he 
was under the hands of a professional shampooner in Boston. 
All physicians who are in the habit of treating paralysis know 
the value of energy on the part of the paralytic who is able to 
exercise himself, and prognosis may be safely made frequent- 
ly, on this one point of character. The paralytic who can give 
exercise to his diseased limbs, without external assistance, 
but who is essentially a lazy person, has his chances for re- 
recovery very materially lessened ; but more than this, Na- 
ture not being assisted in her endeavors to restore normal 
action, will after a while cease her strivings and the patient 
will grow worse. It is a common occurence for old paralytics 
to say, that for a while they improved, then stood still, and 
finally got worse. On examination I have found that the 
changes were in exact proportion to the exercise the affected 
muscles received. 

If this is necessary regarding the muscles that are under 
volitional control, be it never so slightly, it is of much more 
importance regarding those persons who have not this control, 
and therefore who cannot impart this exercise — daily rubbing, 
kneading, and the moving of the limbs in their natural mo- 
tions by others must necessarily be resorted to, and its im- 
portance cannot be over-estimated. But to the case before 



104 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

us : Up to the time of his coming to the Spring, he had im- 
proved for two years he thinks ; but he had to put a whole 
year together in order to see the improvement, it was so very 
slight. He was at the Springs ten weeks, and he could see 
more improvement in any week of it, than in a whole year 
before. 

The number of cells necessary to use in producing con- 
tractions of his paralyzed muscles was gradually reduced till 
I reached thirty, a number I used from choice, subsequently. 
Most of the muscles came under the control of the will, 
although they were too weak to be of any physical service. 
His limbs fleshed up some, his bowels became regular, appe- 
tite got better, and his urinary functions became once more 
healthy ; a very important point, as I think his is a reflex par- 
alysis from the kidneys. He could raise himself from the 
chair-back without assistance, and move his limbs considera- 
bly, and he ascertained, by the aid of crutches, that he could 
bear considerable weight on them. He should have staid at 
least six months, but circumstances were such that he had to 
return home. 

Case LXXXI. "A lady 34 years of age, tall and of good 
contour, received a stroke of hemiplegia of right side, while 
bearing her eighth child, 4J years ago. For eighteen months 
she could not articulate well enough to be understood. For 
two years she could not walk without assistance. In fact at 
present, it is with difficulty that she can walk across the room. 
The deltoid muscle is still sufficiently paralyzed to prevent 
her raising her arm more than a few inches from the body, 
and when the hand is extended, a two pound weight will carry 
it down. The anterior tibial and fibular groups of muscles 
are so much damaged that the extensors on the inside 
of the leg carry the point of the foot inward and downward, 
and the ankle everted, so that when she walks, the toes drag 
and the foot rolls over on its external surface." 

"She complains of swimming and dizziness of her head, 
and although she articulates most words plainly, it seems to 
be with effort, but she has very serious trouble in finding 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 105 

words to express her ideas, so that her clever young compan- 
ion constantly has something to do in keeping her supplied 
with the right word. Possibly this much is due entirely to a 
faulty memory. But the faculty of language of itself, is still se- 
riously affected, for when the words, and the idea too for that 
matter, is furnished her as in reading, she leaves out some 
words, puts in others, and sometimes mixes the others up con- 
siderably. For instance ; in the office hangs a map with this 
inscription on its top border in large letters : "Map showing 
the location of the Northern Pacific Rail Road ;" she reads 
this as, " The Map showing the locality of the Northwestern 
Rail Road. This lady complains that on any attempt at men- 
tal effort, her mind becomes confused, and she can think of 
nothing." (July 2d.) 

Treatment in this case commenced with the daily use of 
the warm bath, with methodical kneading of the paralyzed 
muscles, in a few days the shower bath was added to the 
course, and on the 17th localized galvanism from 30 smee 
cells was taken, and continued every second day. She drank 
from one to one and a half pints of the magnetic water daily. 
She improved steadily, so that at the end of eleven weeks she 
could walk around a square without assistance ; her foot no 
longer scraped the ground when she walked, and the ankle 
did not roll outward as before. Her arm could be carried 
several inches farther from her body, indeed to nearly at right 
angles to it ; she did not have the dizziness and vertigo she 
came with, and she could gather her words better, and read 
nearly correctly. She had increased 11 pounds in weight, and 
her strength was even in larger proportion. 

Case XCVI. During an attack of pernicious fever in the 
summer of 1870 a young lady of Louisiana, aet. 30, one night 
without any premonition became instantly paralyzed in her 
right arm ; in forty-eight hours her left lower limb became 
paralyzed, and during the next day her other two limbs be- 
came similarly affected. The last limbs to come under the 
influences of the disease have recovered sufficiently to admit 
of the usual prehensory and locomotory movements. The 

N 



106 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

right arm and left leg are still utterly useless, but the muscles 
respond to thirty fresh smee cells. Five months after being par- 
alyzed, she gave birth to a child, which was, and is perfectly 
healthy. For a year she has been taking strychnia ; S. B. 
Smith's battery, and for a while Jounod's boot." (July 15 ) 

The treatment in this case opened with full bath at 86°, 
five minutes, daily. The cold shower was soon added, and final- 
ly the cold douches. After the first week, electricity was ad- 
ministered every second day to the diseased muscles. Her 
limbs were well exercised. In three weeks she was put upon 
a pair of crutches morning and evening, and at the end of 
eight weeks, when she left for home, she could walk in this 
way 200 yards or more. Prof. Richardson, of New Orleans, 
having advised her to continue the strychnia, I added pyro- 
phos. Ferri and Phos. Acid Dil. to the prescription. 

I find in my notes several cases of paralysis of the nerves 
of sensation. Here is one, both singular and interesting : 

Case LXXXII. Is quite a celebrated western gambler, 
visits the Springs to get relief from a numbness, anaesthesia of 
the cushiony surface of the last phalanx of his fingers, and for 
what is worse,, an' impairment of his vision at short distances. 
Two troubles which interfere very materially with his profes- 
sional work. A sheet of paper between the balls of his fingers 
feels quite thick, and he cannot detect the character of its 
texture, unless it is very rough. He can see well enough at 
and beyond a distance of two feet ; but within that distance, 
objects of small size especially, become blurred ; hence it is a 
great annoyance for him to read. He is of a quick, nervous 
and excitable temperament, and I should judge, just the wrong 
sort of a man for his business. 

"He says his trouble commenced two months ago, with an 
intense neuralgia of the right side of head and face, which 
went off by or during two or three nervous shocks, which he 
thinks were slight paralytic strokes ; certain it is however, 
that since then he has had his present difficulties, and he 
never had them before." (July 2d.) Under the use of cold 
shower baths, he entirely recovered in two weeks. 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 107 

" I have been told, that although this person is of a fidge- 
ty, high strung, nervous organization, that he has such abso- 
lute control over himself, that with "5,000 on a corner, he is as 
cool as an icicle;" but this coolnes is only in appearance, 
really he feels all the excitement belonging to his avocation, 
and it is his close application to it, which has produced this ef- 
fect upon those organs necessary to its successful prosecution." 

Case LXXIL A gentleman from Ohio, came here on 
7th June, with anaesthesia of hands and feet, produced by poi- 
son contained in richly colored cheese. When he takes hold 
of any object, it feels as if he had gloves on, and when he 
walks he raises his feet high above the ground, as if he was 
stepping over something, or had clogs fastened to them. 
This anaesthesia is not so complete, that he does not feel the 
resistance of the floor when he walks, nor does the nerves of 
his legs or spinal cord seem to be in the least affected, for the 
feeling of resistance is at once instantly transmitted to the 
brain, and he can walk either backward or forward with his 
eyes shut. By the use of friction and shower baths, he was 
cured and returned home at the end of three weeks. 

I doubt that it was the " poison " in the cheese, so much 
as the quantity of cheese he ate, which caused his complaint. 
Temporary reflex anaesthesia is occasionally met with after 
alimentary engorgement. 

SPINAL IRRITATION. 

Six cases of this troublesome disease were presented to 
me during the summer. Five cases were in the person of fe- 
males, and one in a boy of 14 years of age. The ages of the 
five were 19, 24, 26, 40, and 43 years ; two were married and 
had borne children. Three were single. Four of the five had 
unmistakable uterine troubles. One was cured, three sub- 
stantially benefitted ; and one after a month's trial was not 
at all improved. The boy was cured. 

Case CCLXVII. " A very pretty young lady from Ohio, 
two years ago lost her appetite, then she noticed a pain like 
neuralgia occasionally in her stomach, this increased in 



io8 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

frequency and severity. At that time, and ever since, she 
has suffered a great deal with head ache. She has pain be- 
tween the shoulders, and there is some tenderness of skin on 
either side of spine, at that point. By pressure upon the up- 
per dorsal vertebra, a sharp pain shoots through to the stom- 
ach. Has palpitation of the heart occasionally. Bowels 
constipated. She can walk only a short distance, from gen- 
eral debility, and a fear of increasing her troubles. She sleeps 
well, and she attributes her keeping up at all to that fact. 
Her feet, legs, and hands are always cold." 

These symptoms, or some modification of them, existed 
in all the cases. Three were very poor sleepers, all had re- 
markably poor appetites especially for meat. In three, the 
dorsal vertebra alone were affected, in two the Dorso lumbar, 
and in one the cervico dorsal. In two, the headache was very 
severe, in one, palpitation of the heart was severe ; and 
in one it was quite troublesome. In one, the uterine function 
was performed with terrible pain, and in one, violent attacks 
of gastralgia were frequent, which was ascribed to dyspepsia, 
of course. 

v The treatment in these cases was based on the recent 
pathology of Dr. Radcliffe,* that the disease is one associat- 
ed with capillary contraction and the want of a due supply of 
blood to the spinal cord. The spinal anemia of Dr. Ham- 
mond, t The principles of treatment, therefore, after the 
removal of the cause, when it can be ascertained, are first, to 
to improve the general strength and health ; second, to aug- 
ment the supply of blood to the spinal cord. 

The tonic properties of the Magnetic Water with a liberal 
diet, regular exercise, and a full warm bath with a shower 
every day, I found sufficient for the first indication, and to 
meet the second, I directed the hot douche to be used on the 
spine, five to ten minutes — to be interrupted every one or two 
minutes if necessary — daily, and the ascending galvanic cur- 
rent for sixteen minutes to the spinal cord every second day ; 

*A system of medicine, by John Russel Reynolds, M. D., F. R. S. F. R.C. P. 
tDiseases of the Nervous System, 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 109 

the current to be broken every four minutes. This plan of 
treatment, I am inclined to believe will prove satisfactory 
in nearly every case, if persisted in for a sufficient length of 
time. But lesions or disturbances of Nerve tissue of whatever 
kind, either in its arterial circulation or the so-called molicu- 
lar changes of its solid forms, is always slow in its processes 
of repair, and those who fall under the ban of these diseases 
grow impatient at their slow recovery, and of the eternal dos- 
ing which in some cases seems necessary, and treatment is 
abandoned too soon. Of all direct means, the hot douche 
stands prominently forward. The subjects of Spinal Irritation 
are generally thin of flesh, and the spinal column comes at 
once under the influence of the current of hot water, which 
should be sent with considerable force on those portions of 
the spine not too tender or sensitive to receive it, and to be 
of a temperature that will make the skin quite red. Water at 
from 105 ° F. to no ° F. will generally be borne very well. 
Sometimes, however, the hot douche produces palpitation of 
the heart, or nausea or a temporary prostration of the general 
strength. When this is not overcome by two or three trials, 
the cold douche must be substituted. It is then the second- 
ary effect, the reaction which brings an increased supply of 
blood to the parts. In one of the cases here mentioned, the 
cold douche had to be used. It was tried in two other cases, 
but the neuralgiac pains were thereby increased for an hour 
or two, and it was abandoned. Mineral Waters, however, of 
the best tonic properties must be selected for the treatment 
of this disease, as it is probable that the internal administra- 
tion of the water, and the consequent strengthening of the 
digestive and circulatory systems, is one of the most 
important items in the general plan laid down. 

So far as I know, the pure water cure and Graham bread 
establishments of the country have signally failed in making 
any impression on this disease, except for the worse. A liberal 
diet of beef steak, eggs, cream and such things is very impor- 
tant. 

DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS, BLADDER AND URINE. 

A large proportion of all invalids who visit Mineral Springs 



no Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

have some affection belonging to one of the above classes, 
which for convenience, may be classed together here. Nearly 
all diseases of this class usually met with, terminate sooner 
or later in irritable bladder. There is very little variation in 
the symptoms of irritable bladder, so that there is little or 
no difficulty in making out its diagnosis. But irritable bladder 
itself is only a leading symptom of numerous disorders of each 
and all the organs related to the bladder, and even of that 
organ. To diagnose these requires not only sound knowledge 
of the anatomy and physiology of the organs and the pathology 
of their various diseases, but considerable tact in chemical 
manipulation, microscopic examinations, and the handy use 
of exploring instruments, with accurate powers of discrimina- 
tion. Unfortunately these requirements are seldom met with 
at Springs' either in Michigan or elsewhere. 

Indeed the majority of physicians in general practice, 
have not sufficient work of this kind to do, to warrant them in 
making the necessary expenditures for a thorough and scien- 
tific examination of these diseases, and consequently their 
attempt at diagnosis is generally nothing more than a good 
opinion, but being given with that understanding, it is the 
best that can be done under the circumstances. This apology 
however does not and should not hold good in the case of 
those establishments visited by large numbers of persons every 
year to be relieved of these disorders. 

The surgeon's office of these watering places should be fit- 
ted up with a small but adequate laboratory, with the necessary 
apparatus for making a correct diagnosis of these diseases, so 
that the patient may be informed at once, whether he is to be 
benefited by the water, or by any other mode of treatment. 

So far as I know, the universal, and nearly the only in- 
strument used at these Springs, is the urinomter and a piece 
of litmus paper ; and if the matter was not such a serious one, 
it would be supremely ridiculous to see a man, who is either 
a physician or acting as such, attempt to diagnose between a 
score of serious disorders, by dropping his urinometer into a 
little vessel of urine, and by wetting the litmus paper, and to 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 1 1 1 

hear the miserable bosh regarding the specific gravity, acidity 
or alkalinity of any particular specimen of urine, and the 
exact ( ! ) pathological lesion with which the patient is 
suffering. 

All such procedures are downright swindles. No physi- 
cian, whose opinion is worth having, will attempt to give a 
fair diagnosis on any such evidence as can be obtained from a 
mere questioning of the patient and the specific gravity and 
chemical reaction of the urine, and nothing more. It may be 
set down as a rule, that whoever attempts it is a rank Charlatan. 

In persons of certain temperaments these diseases have a 
very dispiriting and depressing influence. They spend their 
money freely and without stint, on any and every scheme that 
offers the shadow of a hope of relief. They wander from 
one Mineral Spring to another, and at each place are subjected 
to nothing more nor less than a robbery, because their disease 
is not sufficiently examined into. I have seen men almost in 
hopeless melancholy from their frequent disappointments. 
The Springs of Michigan are no exeption. They are so all 
over the country. These diseases improve slowly, even under 
the most favorable circumstances. It is idle to expect cures in 
a few days or weeks. Months may be required, and it requires 
no little philosophy on the part of the invalid, to wait patient- 
ly for so long a time ; and hence the greater importance of an 
intelligent and thorough examination by all the means at the 
command of the Medical profession. These diseases are by 
no means, intractable, and when fully understood, can be 
mastered. This requires labor, study, skill, delicacy, and a sacri- 
fice of personal feeling ; but the reward of great success is offer- 
ed to those of the profession who choose to make the effort. 

The old maxim of "remove the cause and the patient 
will get well," does not apply with much force to irritable 
bladder. This irritation will continue months and years after 
the cause has been removed. But, nevertheless, remove the 
cause, whether it be gouty or rheumatic inflammation, or any of 
various diseases of the prostate gland, renal disease, calculus, 
lithic acid diathesis, lithates phosphates or oxalates in the urine, 



112 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

chronic inflammations, fissure, piles, or what not, and then, the 
best remedy that I know of, is some alkaline Mineral Water 
as a drink. Instead of opiates, either in pill, suppository, or 
plaster, a full warm bath in the evening is far preferable. To 
this simple treatment most cases will yield in due time. 

In a great many cases acidulo alkaline Mineral Waters 
will remove the cause, that is, it will cure the disease on 
which vesical irritability depends ; such a disease is the lithic 
or uric acid diathesis. 

At one time there were very serious objections raised to 
alkaline Springs in this disease, on the ground that the 
stomach became irritable, and that although the excess of uric 
acid might be removed, yet a worse evil was left behind in the 
shape of deposits. D'Arcet was the first to point out, while 
at Vichey, that this objection rests entirely with carbonate 
soda waters, and that it does not apply to bi-carbonate soda 
waters, with excess of carbonic acid. These waters being of 
milder taste, not irritating to the stomach, and the excess of 
carbonic acid maintains the earthy salts in solution, after the 
alkali has caused the uric acid to disappear. 

Purpurine in the urine is always connected with some 
organic or functional derangement of the liver, and hence, 
some of the sulphureted waters, like those at Grand Rapids, 
will be of great service, by relieving torpor of liver, &c. 

Deposits of the earthy salts are produced most frequently 
by some form of dyspepsia, attended with considerable de- 
pression of spirits ; in such cases alkaline waters, with or with- 
out iron, according to the nature of the case, should be selected. 
In fact, the two prominent indications in nearly all cases of 
vesical, urinary or kidney disease, is to keep the functions of 
the skin in active operation, which is best done by vapor or 
warm baths ; and to give tone to the digestive organs by 
means already indicated. The diet, in all cases, should be 
confined to those articles that the patient can readily digest, 
instead of watching the chemical analysis of every mouth- 
ful he takes. 

IN THE NEURALGIAS. 

Neuralgia follows essentially in the wake of anaemia, or 



Therapeutic Effects of Mirier al Spring Waters. 113 

as Romberg somewhat poetically has said " Neuralgia is the 
prayer of the Nerve for blood." Anstie says, "It is universally 
the case, that the existing condition of the patient at the 
time of the first onset of the disease, is one of debility, either 
general or local." * * * * Although a considerable 
number of neuralgiac patients are so far healthy in appearance, 
that they have a fairly ruddy complexion, and a good amount 
of muscular strength, it is impossible to admit that these facts 
disprove the existence of debility, either structural or func- 
tional, in the nervous system, for the commonest experience 
teaches that such debility does frequently co-exist with a great 
robustness and development. * * * * . * 

John Erichsen says : " Neuralgia is almost always associat- 
ed with some want of power." Aiken gives it as his opinion, 
" That all neuralgias are symptomatic of more or less grave 
organic lesions, or some of the debilitating cachexias." 

With this view of the nature of the disease, which is re- 
ceived with great unanimity by the Profession, it is easy to 
comprehend the benefit and advantages of the splendid tonic 
properties of the Michigan Mineral Waters. The quiet, per- 
sistent, restorative powers of these waters, the inexplicable 
alterative effect, is such as to make many of the most obsti- 
nate and protracted cases yield to their influences. In fact, 
there are few diseases more amenable to the remedial virtues 
of these Springs than neuralgia. But no sudden and miracu- 
lous cure must be anticipated by the invalid, like those re- 
corded in Holy Writ. While there are no winged angels at 
these Springs to disturb the waters, that he who plunges in 
first thereafter may be healed, it requires a great deal of the 
same patience that kept the crowd of sick and crippled wait- 
ing on the porch that overlooked the pool of Siloam, for that 
happy event to occur. 

The effect of these Michigan Waters is produced by 
natural causes easily understood. The slow but sure build- 
ing up of the man. A profound change in the organic and 
functional condition of the being, it were idle to suppose would 
occur in a day. 
O 



114 Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 

Twelve cases of the most intense neuralgia came under 
my notice last Summer. Eight were males, four females. 
Six were of the sciatic, six of the trifacial. The shortest du- 
ration of the disease in any case, was two years ; the longest 
twelve. The average duration 8 years. Of the trifacial cases 
the pain in 2 was on the temporal bone, i on the maxillary, 
I covered the occipito-frontal, I frontal-c/azms, and I parietal- 
clavus. Of the sciatic cases the pain in 2 was just outside the 
pelvic foramen, involving the hip joint ; 3 in the femoral por- 
tion, and 1 the inter maleolar. Of the cases involving the 
head and face, 2 recovered ; clavus, 2 greatly improved, I 
slightly improved, and 1 not benefited at all. Of the sciatic 
cases, 2 recovered; 2 greatly improved, and 2 not benefited at 
all. Most of these cases had been under able medical advice 
previously to their visit to Michigan, so that they had not failed 
of being cured for want of professional skill. Prof. Stone, 
Prof. Parrin, Prof. Musey, Prof. Pancoast, and Dr. Washing- 
ton Atlee had each of them an old patient in the list. The 
shortest time spent at the Spring by any patient, was six 
weeks ; the longest time, seven months ; average time, three 
months. 

Aside from these obstinate and protracted cases, there 
were scores of others of every grade of severity. The great 
majority of these were relieved entirely. 

The method of using the water in this disease occupied 
every diversity of form. Two pints of cold water were gen- 
erally administered daily, usually in small doses ; if circum- 
stances indicated, a portion was directed to be taken hot, or 
otherwise modified. The external application of the water 
wis generally of a full bath at 90 ° F., with or without a cold 
shower. Some cases could not bear cold water at all, others 
required baths at always over 100 ° F. In the inter-maleolar 
case, the hot sitz bath, the hot vapor, and the hot air-bath to 
the lower limbs were faithfully tried, on the principle of 
Radcliffe, that pain is the expression of bloodlessness, and that 
the disease possibly existed in the extreme peripheries of the 
sciatic ; but to no purpose. In this case greatest benefit was 



Therapeutic Effects of Mineral Spring Waters. 115 

obtained by the application of the cold douche to the spine. 
It was tried in three other cases of sciatica, but increased the 
pain. Hot douche to spine caused considerable disturbance 
with the heart for an hour or so after the bath in two cases, 
and was of no benefit in several others. Galvanism was tried 
in two cases of sciatica without benefit, in one case of clavus 
it was temporarily. In two cases, (not included above,) after 
the use of the water for two months without benefit, the 
orthophosphate of iron, with quinine and strychnine, was given 
in addition to the hydro-mineral treatment, with advantage. 

Beside the beneficial effects of the Mineral Water of the 
State, the climate of Michigan is peculiarly adapted to the 
treatment of nervous diseases; it is tonicbut not so dry as to be 
stimulating. Hence, in an affection consisting largely or 
entirely of debility and irritability, local or general of the 
nervous system, such as neuralgia, a constantly stimulating 
influence, such as very dry atmosphere, highly charged with 
ozone, and modified electrical conditions, will be most likely to 
increase the already existing pathological conditions. 

Minnesota has a dry and stimulating atmosphere, and 
nervous diseases are in large proportion in that State, and 
increasing every year, when severe and protracted removal to 
a less stimulating climate, is the only cure. It is therefore, 
reasonable to suppose, that by reversing the above climatic 
conditions, which seem to foster and aggravate nervous 
diseases, the result will be entirely different. Observation 
and experience seem to confirm this reasoning. 



CHAPTER XXL 



MICHIGAN AS A SUMMER RESORT. 

FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 

The most diametrically opposite views prevail in the Pro- 
fession, regarding the climate necessary for. or best suited to, 
consumptives. Cold, warm, dry and moist climates have 
each their advocates. These different opinions have frequent- 
ly been formed upon a negative sort of evidence. The obser- 
vation of one whose position enables him to judge, is that the 
cold and dry climate of Minnesota is not suitable for con- 
sumptives, therefore he recommends the moist, warm climate 
of Florida. Another witnesses the constant deaths from 
consumption in Florida, and recommends the cold, dry air of 
the upper Mississippi country. Very seldom is there any dis- 
tinction made as to the variety of consumption, for which 
this or that climate is recommended — and herein probably 
consists the greater cause for the prevailing differences of 
opinion on the subject. 

The most recent, and probably the best authorities on 
climate adapted to those effected with pulmonary consump- 
tion, state that for cases of the disease of inflammatory origin, 
the inland climate of the upper Nile, or the warm, moist, 
moderately stimulating climate of marine localities, is best 
adapted. And that cases of scrofulous character, should 
search for dry and pure air at considerable heights above the 
sea-level, as the high plateaux of the Andes. Minnesota is 
condemned because it is not high enough* above the sea 
level. Another author, t himself a consumptive, who has 
long favored Mentone as a winter resort for consumptives, is a 
warm advocate of England, as their summer.resort. 

*Puloconary Consumption, Its nature, variety, and treatment. Drs. Williams. 
tOn the treatment of Pulmonary Consumption. Dr. J. H. Bennett. 



Michigan as a Summer Resort. 

He says : " I am fairly warranted, on my own personal ex- 
perience, in stating that there is no summer climate in Europe 
so good for consumptives as our British insular climate, where 
we are constantly screened from the rays of the midsummer 
sun by an atmosphere full of watery vapor. I attribute in a 
great measure my own recovery to my having withstood the 
temptations of summer travel, and to my having returned 
home year after year. I may add that my experience with 
others has been identical. Every Spring, for the last twelve 
years, I had, at Mentone, where I spend the winter, to direct 
the movements of a considerable number of consumptives, 
whom I have helped on throughout their Winter sojourn. 
Many will travel, will go to Switzerland ; many are obliged 
to remain in the vicinity of the locality where they are to 
spend the ensuing winter, owirg to res angusta domi ; but I 
invariably use my influence to induce them to go to the high- 
er mountain regions. Every autumn, when we all meet again, 
I find that those who have returned to England, and have 
lived there in the country, have done the best. Nearly all 
my best cases during ten years have been persons who have 
returned regularly to England, who have even there sought 
cool, healthy country localities, and who have gone North in 
our very hot weather." 

The California Physicians now generally recommend con- 
sumptives to go to the warm, moist climate of the southern 
part of their State, especially in Winter. Dr. Halch* urges 
the mountain ranges, 7000 feet above sea level, as the best 
resort in summer. 

Dr. Hawleyt who has made considerable inquiry into the 
effects of the climate of Minnesota upon consumption, gives his 
opinion that except in the first stages, before there has been 
even a partial expulsion of tuberculous matter, the disease is 
greatly aggravated by that climate. In the earliest stages, 
the climate is favorable, indirectly however, by its stimula- 
ting effect uponthe system generally. Dr. Sweeny, of the 
same State says, that 90 per cent, of consumptives will die 

transactions of American Medical Society, 1871. t Ibid. 



Michigan as a Summer Resort. 

within two years ; and that about two-thirds of the cases 
originating there were of known predisposition. 

So far as I have been able to analyze quite a number of re- 
ports on climatology with reference to this particular disease, 
I believe all those cases of pulmonary consumption induced by 
inflammatory action, possessing a persistent local irritation, can 
only be relieved by a climate that is soothing to the pulmonary 
mucous surfaces. Moisture and warmth of atmosphere are es- 
sential to this. Therefore, Florida for the winter months, pre- 
sents these qualities, but the marine localities possessing an 
atmosphere stimulated by salt, irritating of course, would not 
seem to be best for these cases. St. John's river or Aiken, 
South Carolina, would be preferable. But in summer time, 
either of these localities fs too warm. The excessive heat 
is debilitating, and the patient is pulled down instead of being 
built up. It strikes me, however, that Michigan or the Lake 
Country, presents the desirable requisites of climate for this 
class of patients in summer. Besides, the nights are cool and 
refreshing, strengthening sleep is easily procured which readily 
overcomes any debilitating effects of a few hot days. Beyond 
this particular class of cases, I do not think any thing bene- 
ficial is to be derived by consumptives from Michigan climate. 

Consumptives visiting the State should avoid sulphur 
waters, and waters holding much, if any, lime in solution. 
So far from being beneficial, the whole class of lime prepara- 
tions are now considered injurious to tuberculous patients. 

" Dr. Heberden* paid great attention to this subject, and 
insists upon the paramount importance of the purity of water, 
and even went so far as to recommend the use of distilled 
water. He observed that water loaded with lime proved ex- 
tremely pernicious. And a striking coincidence is furnished by 
M. Warner, of France, who observed that in certain parts of 
the province of Sologne where the vegetable mould is very 
shallow and contains no trace of lime, neither consumption 
nor calculous diseases prevail. I w r ould also add that the 
use of hard water, especially by consumptives or persons pre- 



*Consumption : its Pathology and Treatment, W. M. Logan, M. D. 



Michigan as a Summer Resort. 

disposed to consumption, is now seriously objected to by 
intelligent physicians, prominent among whom are Drs. 
Henry Hartshorne and B. W. Richardson. Dr. Frick of 
Baltimore analyzed the blood of four cases during the exis- 
tence of crude tubercles, and states that, among other de- 
viations from the normal standard, he detected an increase of 
lime, the quantities in the different cases being respectively 
.272, .257, .276, .283, remarkably contrasting with .183, the 
normal proportion." 



CHAPTER XXII 



OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST. 

Detroit is the Metropolis of the State and has a popula- 
tion of 90,000 inhabitants. It is the oldest city in the North- 
west, the French having settled there and built a fort in 1647. 
It did not amount to more than a trading post, however, till 
after the cession of the surrounding territory to the United 
States in 1796. Since then the growth has been steady and 
of the most healthy character. As around all old commercial 
centers wealth has accumulated, this in turn has been spent 
carefully and judiciously in building up one of the most beau- 
tiful and substantial business places in the west. The streets 
are wide, well-paved, and clean, and the homes of the people 
have an air of comfort that I have seen nowhere else out west. 
No day while in Michigan did I enjoy more than the one 
spent in walking about Detroit, an entire stranger, visiting 
many places of interest, without having even the " eyes of 
Delaware" upon me. Detroit has a Medical College and an 
excellent Medical Journal. 



ANN ARBOR 

is an hour's ride from Detroit, and is the seat of the celebrated 
University of Michigan ; one of the most magnificent institu- 
tions of learning in the world. Over eleven hundred students 
were in attendance there during 1871 ; of these, 440 were in 
the department of classics and science, 300 in the department 
P 



Other Places of Interest. 

of Law, 320 in the department of Medicine and Surgery, and 
40 in that of Pharmacy. 

The only charge for tuition in this institution is ten 
dollars per annum ; admission fee of ten dollars for residents 
of the State, and twenty-five dollars for non-residents, is re- 
quired. The annual expenses, including board, clothing &c. 
for several years has been on the average $360. 

The University Medical Journal is published here. 

THE SAGINAWS. 

Our first care was to learn their geography.* There were 
Saginaw City and East Saginaw, with the adjacent villages of 
Florence, Carrolton, and South Saginaw ; comprising in all a 
population of 25,000 souls. The Saginaw River runs between 
the Saginaws, and is crossed by three substantial bridges ; the 
street-cars running from one town to the other. The river is 
navigable for vessels not drawing over eleven feet of water, 
and is seventeen miles in length, taking its rise just above 
Saginaw. The trade of the river is estimated at $20,000,000 
a year. 

EAST SAGINAW 

claims to be the commercial center of the Valley, being the 
seat of the State Salt Inspector's office, and of the Saginaw 
Valley Lumberman's Association. It has many fine blocks 
of houses, is lighted with gas, and has miles of brick sewerage. 
It has two street railways, a brick skating rink, public halls, 
Nicholson pavements, and all the necessary belongings of a 
live, thriving city. 

From the cupola of the Bancroft House can be counted 
the tall stacks of thirty-five saw mills, nine shingle mills, and 
thirty salt blocks, all in active operation. There are eight 
churches, and the school property of this and Saginaw City is 
greater in value in proportion to the number of children than 
in any other town in Michigan. Its present population is 

" A trip to the Great Saginaw Valley," June 1871, By Laura Ream, Indianapolis, Ind.^~ 



Other Places of Interest. 

13,000; in 1850 it was only 17. It supports two daily and three 
weekly newspapers, one of which is a German paper. 

The Bancroft House, strange to say, was the first house 
built. 

SAGINAW CITY. 

This is the oldest settlement in the Valley, and has a 
population of 10,000. A trading post was established here, 
and a fort built for its protection, as early as 1812. It became 
an important fur-trading point in 1836, when vessels began 
plying between it and Detroit. It was then known as Pontiac, 
but eventually took the name of Saginaw, which in the Indian 
dialect means " a place to camp." It is now a handsomely built 
and substantial city. It can boast of a grand hotel, the Tay- 
lor House, and of a splendid Union School building. In the 
general distribution of splendid school buildings, I do not need 
to give its length and breadth, but I wish I had space to de- 
scribe the best jail in the North West. A clean, well ventilat- 
ed, wholesome jail is such a rarity in this Christian land that 
the citizens of Saginaw should have credit for one. I might 
almost call it a cheerful jail. And it is not expensive either. 

It was not necessary to inform us that we had arrived at 
the region of lumber and salt. There were saw mills to the 
right and to the left of us as far as the eye could reach. There 
were booms of logs on either side of the river, and up the streams 
emptying into it were logs by the million-- " at least one hun- 
dred and fifty miles of logs," I was told, waiting their turn to 
be sawed. 

The salt wells at Saginaw are considered the best in 
America, containing a larger quantity of salt of purer quality. 
No less than 645,576 barrels were manufactured during the 
year 1870. 

The next thing in order was a visit to Wenona and Bay 
City, seventeen miles down the river, at the mouth of the 
great Saginaw Valley. 

BAY CITY. 

was another vast surprise. Think of it. An Opera House 



Other Places of Interest. 

worth $100,000, in the wilderness ; a hotel on as grand a scale ; 
banks with half a million of capital ; eight school houses ; (one 
worth $6,000,) and the biggest saw mill in the world. There 
is a manufactory of wooden water and gas pipes in successful 
operation, with a capital of $200,000. 

I visited Mr. Brewer's mill, which, in the distance, I mistook 
for a fashionable watering place. Its entire cost, including 
engine, was $150,000. All the work about the mill is done 
by machinery. This mill has two gang saws, with eighty- 
seven saws in each gang, besides one large circular saw, two 
slabbing saws, and several small circular saws. The yearly 
capacity of this mill is 25,000,000 feet. A lew feet distant 
from this building is a "salt block." I also visited the mill 
of H. W. Sage & Co., at Wenona, which has the largest ca- 
pacity of any mill in the Valley. Not long ago it sawed 370, 
797 feet in twelve hours. 

KALAMAZOO. 

The State Insane Asylum is situated at this place, a 
young city of 9,000 inhabitants. Dr. E. H. Van Duzen is 
Medical Superintendent. On November 1st, 1 871, there were 
296 under treatment. 

Extensive improvements were made to the institution 
during the past year, and it compares favorably with any in the 
country. 

Kalamazoo has also a college which bears the name of 
the town ; the attendance during the past year was 160. 
Large sums have recently been added to the endowment 
fund, and valuable additions of apparatus made to the depart- 
ment of Natural Philosophy. 

An annual Horse Fair is held at this place, which is one 
of the best in the west. 

WEALTH RESOURCES OF MICHIGAN. 

Few persons outside of Michigan have any adequate idea 
of the vast resources of that State ; and visitors to the State 
are constantly amazed at the wonderful development of spe- 
cial interests. 



Wealth and Resozirces of Michigan. 

SALT. 

The following- table showing the amount of salt produced 
during the past three years is taken from the State Salt In- 
spector's report : 



To May ist, bbls. 

May 

June 

July 

August 

September . . 
October 



1869. 


1870. 


1871. 


34,150 


65,434 


124,870 


52,444 


44,107 


51,614 


75,336 


82,561 


107,232 


101,773 


116,110 


94,160 


91,583 


84,391 


108,032 


58,573 


87,266 


120,257 


208,378 


139,417 


94,728. 



Total 549,237 618,282 700,893 

IRON. 

Michigan is rapidly becoming the great iron center of the 
United States. She now produces the ore from which is smelt- 
ed over one fourth the iron made in the United States, and 
supplies the demand for ore from over 200 furnaces in Ohio, 
Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York and other States. 

The iron region is in the Upper Peninsula, where there 
are 29 mines in operation, which produced about 1,000,000 
tons of ore during 1871. The product of Michigan fur- 
naces amounted to about 55,000 tons of iron for the same 
length of time. 

LUMBER. 

The lumber estimates of Michigan constitute an important 
feature of its wealth, and the traffic in pine and oak timber is 
one of great magnitude. In the markets of the world, Mich- 
igan pine and oak stand pre-eminent. The northern part of 
the State is an immense pine forest. The best qualities of 
pine are found in what is known as the Saginaw District. The 
lumber centers are Saginaw on the East and Muskegon on 
the Western shores of the State. At this time* it is impossi- 
ble to obtain reliable estimates of the amount of pine lumber 

* January ^ 1872. 



Wealth aud Resources of Michigan. 

manufactured in the State during the year 1871. The amount 
manufactured in 1869 was 1,999,804,431 feet ; in 1870 about 
2,400,000,000 feet and in 1871, notwithstanding the supposed 
shortage of logs, over 2,000,000,000 feet of pine lumber was 
marketed, which, at an average value of $15 per thousand 
would bring over $30,000,000. The destructive fires which 
swept over the State involved the loss of immense quantities 
of standing pine, but much of this pine is still standing, and if 
cut during the winter will be saved to the manufacturers. In 
view of this fact the lumbering operations of the winter of 
1871-72 will be on a more extensive scale than ever before 
known in the history of Michigan. The season will, in a meas- 
ure, regulate the log crop, but it is safe to estimate that it will 
exceed three billions of feet for 1872.* 

FRUIT. 

The fruit crop of 187 1 was somewhat injured by the dry 
weather. Peaches were abundant in numbers, but in size and 
quality, were below the average of the Lake Shore region. 
The quality rather than the quantity, brought down the price 
in the Milwaukee and Chicago markets, but we estimate the 
value of the crop of the Lake Shore region alone at $759,000. 
There was a fair crop of apples, although this was also in- 
jured by the codling moth worm and the drouth. The apple 
crop of the Lake Shore regions strictly, did not exceed $100,- 
000 in value, but' the exportations including the product of 
the interior undoubtedly reached $500,000 in value. Grapes 
were very good and abundant, and the Lake Shore yield 
amounted to 500 tons of the value of $50,000. The small 
fruit crop was alsos somewhat damaged by drouth, but was 
abundant and generally profitable, amounting in value on the 
Lake Shore to probably $250,000. The best estimate of the 
value of the fruit yield on the Lake Shore in 1871 is $1,150,- 
000. 

COPPER. 

Michigan contains the largest copper mine in the world ; 

*Michigan Almanac, Detroit. 



Wealth and Resources of Michigan. 

the Calumet-Hecla. In October of last year it turned out 825 
tons of mineral, of which 83 per cent, was pure ingot copper, 
and during the year it yielded two-thirds of all the copper 
mined in the United States, or about 16,000 tons of mineral. 

PLASTER. 

The best plaster beds of the State are at Grand Rapids, 
which yield an annual supply of 40,000 tons of rock plaster. 
45.000 barrels of calcined are shipped from the same place. 

MAGNETIC AND MINERAL SPRINGS. 

During the year of 1871 it is estimated that the Springs 
were visited by about 7,000 persons, at a cost while in the 
State of $350,000. No doubt this number of visitors will be 
largely increased from year to year as the facilities for good 
accommodations are increased. 

FINANCES. 

The aggregate value of real or personal property in the 
State was, for 1871, $630,000,000 on which a tax was levied of 
$757,000.00. 

Total interest bearing debt, 2,321,000,00. 
" non-interest bearing debt 34,292,78. 



WILD SPORTS. 

FISHING. 

The rivers and lakes, large and small of Michigan abound 
in a variety of the finest fish, and as angling is a sport in which 
both sexes and nearly all ages may join, it is a sport more 
generally indulged in where large numbers of persons are 
gathered. In the rivers, at least in the middle and upper por- 
tions of the State, pickerel, fine perch, and mullet may be 
readily caught. I have frequently seen, while at St. Louis, 
pickerel two and a half and three feet in length, and weighing 
several pounds, taken from the Pine River. 

The elegant speckled trout is caught in the small lakes, 
and the famous salmon trout is taken in large numbers from 
the small bays making out from the large lakes, especially 
Lake Huron. 

SQUIRREL SHOOTING 

is one of the best fall sports. I have known a boy fourteen 
years of age to kill 30 in one day of black and gray squirrels. 

DEER HUNTING 

is good in October, and there is a large quantity of this game. 
Almost every day after this time venison is brought into the 
larger towns in the upper part of the State. 

BEAR HUNTING 

is still kept up with considerable interest to those fond of the 
sport, and a sufficient number of animals may yet be found for 
purposes of excitement in the chase. 

Muskrats, beaver> otter, rabbits, minx, wild cat, and sev- 
eral other varieties of wild animals may be found in considera- 
ble numbers. 



